84 RICHARD FROTSCHER’S ALMANAC AND GARDEN MANUAL 
whenever required by sheep, cattle, hogs and 
horses. In prolonged summer drought it 
dries completely, so that, if fired, it would | 
burn off clean. But this occurs in ‘Kentucky, 
where indeed it has seemed without fire, to 
disappear utterly; yet, when rain came, the 
bright green spears promptly recarpeted the 
earth. 
With its underground stems and many roots, 
it sustains the heat and 
drought of the Southern 
States as well as those of 
Kentucky, where indeed 
it is subjected to severer 
trials of this kind than 
in the more Southern 
< States. In fact, it bears 
‘the vicissitudes of our 
climate about as well as 
Bermuda grass, and is 
nearly as nutritious. 
Blue grass grows well 
on hill tops, or bottom 
land if not too wet and 
too poor. It may be 
sown any time from 
September to April, 
preferable perhaps in 
the latter half of Febru- 
ary, or early in March. 
The best catch I ever had was sown the 20th 
of March, on unbroken land, from which 
Kentucky Blue Grass. 
! 
trash, leaves, etc., had just been burned. 
The surface of the land should be cleaned of 
trash of all kinds, smooth, even; and if re- 
cently plowed and harrowed, it should be 
rolled also. The last proceeding is for com- 
pacting the surface in order to prevent the 
seed from sinking too deep in the ground. 
Without harrowing or brushing in, many of 
them get in too deep to come up, even when 
the surface of the land has had the roller over 
it. The first rain after seeding will put them 
in deep enough, as the seeds are very minute, 
and the spears of grass small as fine needles, 
and therefore unable to get out from under 
heavy cover. ‘These spears are so small as to 
be invisible, except to close examination; and 
in higher latitudes this condition continues 
through the first year. ‘Thus, some who have 
sown the blue grass seed, seeing the first year ~ 
no grass, imagine they have been cheated, 
plant some other crop, and probably lose what 
close inspection would have shown to be a good 
catch. This, however, is not apt to occur in 
the Southern tier of States, as the growth here 
is more rapid. The sowing mentioned above 
made on the 20th of March, came up prompt- 
ly, and in three months the grass was from six 
to ten inches high. One year here gives a 
finer growth and show than two in Kentucky, 
and any other State so far North. 
Sown alone, 20 to 26 pounds, that is 2 bushels, 
should be used; in mixtures, 4 to 6 pounds. 
ENCLISH OR PERENNIAL RYE CRASS. 
(Lolium Perenne. ) 
This is the 
first grass culti- 
vated in Eng- 
land over two 
centuries ago, 
and at a still 
more remote 
Piet WO ds), tn. 
France. It was 
long more 
widely known 
and cultivated 
than any other 
erass, became 
adapted to a 
ereat variety of 
soils and con- 
ditions, and a 
vast number (seventy or more) of varieties 
produced, some of which were greatly im- 
proved while others were inferior and became 
annuals. Introduced into the United States 
in the first quarter of the current century, it 
has never become very popular, although 
‘i " 
‘ we ie 5 
English Rye Grass. 
shown by the subjoined analysis of Way not 
to be deficient in nutritive matter. In 100 
parts of the dried grass cut in bloom were 
albuminoids 11.85, fatty matter , heat- 
producing principles 42,24, wood fibre 35,20, 
ash 7.54. The more recent analysis of Wolff 
and Knopp, allowing for water, gives rather 
more nutritive matter than this. 
It erows rapidly, and yields heavy crops of 
seed, makes good grazing, and good hay. But, 
as with all the Rye grasses, to make good hay, 
it must be cut before passing the blossom 
stage, as after that it deteriorates rapidly. 
The roots being short, it does not bear drought 
well, and exhausts the soil, dying out ina few 
years. In these respects it is lable to the same 
objections as Timothy. The stem, one to two 
feet high, has four to six purplish joints and 
as many dark green leaves; the flexious spiked 
panicle bearing the distant spikelets, one in 
each bend. 
It should be sown in August or September, 
at the rate of twenty-five or thirty pounds, or 
one bushel seed per acre. 
TALL MEADOW OAT GRASS. 
(Arrhenatherum Avenaceum. ) 
Evergreen grass in Virginia, and other 
Southern States, and it is the Tall Oat (Avena 
elatior) of Linzeus. It is closely related to the 
common oat, and has a beautiful open panicle, 
leaning slightly to one side. . ‘Spikelets two 
flowered, and a rudiment of a third, open ; 
lowest flower staminate or sterile, with a long 
bent awn below the middle of the back.”— 
(Flint. ) 
It is widely naturalized and well adapted to 
