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A GRICUL TURAL GRA SSES 

 {Gramina CE^), . 



AGEOSTIS ALBA— VAB. STOLONIFERA 

 {Fiorin, or Creeping Bent Grass). 



This plant thrives in spongy soil which is not firm enough to 

 produce better herbage, and in land which cannot be drained it 

 will get a living where other grasses perish. In mountainous 

 countries where rain falls frequently and abundantly, and the 

 atmosphere is moist, it grows freely, as well as in light land and 

 on peat. It affords very early feed in spring, but its power of 

 yielding late keep in autumn is its greatest recommendation. 

 Fiorin has been pastured as late as the middle of December, but 

 if not eaten down in autumn the herbage in the following spring 

 is sweet and wholesome food for young stock. Not much more 

 can be said in its favour. Cattle refuse it if they can get any- 

 thing better, and in wet seasons its creeping roots become very 

 exhausting to the soil. Another disadvantage is the tendency of 

 the plant to become ergoted. 



Although this grass has the peculiarity of rooting from the 

 procumbent nodes of the stem, especially in pastures much 

 trodden by cattle, it is not dependent alone upon the surface soil 

 for support. In suitable situations the roots penetrate four or 

 five feet into the subsoil, and to some extent these roots maintain 

 the plant during protracted drought. A series of rainy summers 

 always creates a demand for it out of proportion to its value, but 

 when hot dry years return it is quite as unreasonably condemned. 



