VELVET LAWN GRASS — MEADOW SOFT GRASS. 



195 



found in several other places in this county (Oxford). It 

 would seem from this it is indigenous to our clay lands. I 

 gathered the seed on my land, and have now some two acres 

 sown, and have just cut (June 29th,), the prettiest lot of 

 hay 1 ever saw. Orchard grass in the same field will not 

 compare with it." 



Several analysis of this grass have been made, which are 

 given below : 



The hay, as analyzed by Wolff and Knop, shows water, 

 14.3; flesh formers, 9.9; fat, 3.1; heat producers, 36.7; fibre, 

 33.6; and, ash, 5.5. 



From the experiments of Sinclair, at the Woburn farm, 

 we learn that the produce from an acre cut in flower, was 

 19,057 pounds; loss in flrying, 12,395 pounds, retaining 

 nutritive elements, 1,191 pounds. The grass weighed the 

 same cut when in seed, and lost 15,246 pounds in drying, 

 and yielded 818 pounds of nutritive matter. The after- 

 math yielded 6,806 pounds of grass and 373 pounds of 

 nutritive matter. 



The chief merits of this grass are its soft beauty, its pro- 

 ductiveness, and its tenacity of life. When once well set, 

 it bids defiance to all other species. Enriching the soil is 

 the only way to get rid of it. It grows well upon thin 

 sandy places, and will therefore suit the sandstone soil of 

 the Cumberland Mountains. The seeds weigh about seven 

 pounds to the bushel, and as many as eighty bushels have 

 been grown to the acre. 



