74 Richard Frotsclierh Almanac and Garden Manual 



be too tenacious, drainage will remedy the soil 5 if worn out, a top 

 dressing of stable manure will give it a good send-off, and it will 

 furnish several good mowings the first year. It grows well be- 

 tween 290 and 48° lattitude. It may be mowed from two to four 

 times a year according to the lattitude, season and treatment ; 

 yielding from one to three tons of excellent hay per acre on poor 

 to medium land. In grazing and as hay most animals select it in 

 preference among mixtures in other grasses. In lower latitudes 

 it furnishes good winter grazing, as well as for Spring, Summer 

 and Fall. After grazing or mowing few grasses grow so rapidly 

 (three or six inches per week), and are so soon ready again for 

 tooth or blade. It is easily cured and handled. It is readily 

 seeded, and catches with certainty. Its long, deeply penetrat:ng, 

 fibrous roots enable it to sustain itself and grow vigorously dur- 

 ing droughts that dry up other grasses, except tall oat grass, which 

 has similar roots and characteristics. It grows well in open lands 

 and in forests of large trees, the underbrush being all cleared off. 

 I have had it grow luxuriantly even in beech woods where the 

 roots are superficial, in the crotches of roots and close to the 

 trunks of trees. The hay is of high quality, and the young grass 

 contains a larger per cent, of nutritive digestible matter than any 

 other grass. It thrives well without any renewal on the same 

 ground for thirty-five, nay forty years 5 how much longer I am not 

 able to say. It is easily exterminated when the land is desired 

 for other crops. Is there any other grass for which so much can 

 be said ? l 



EED TOP GEASS. ^ 



{Agrostis Vulgaris.) 



'l?his is the bent grass of England, the herd grass of the South- 

 ern States ; not in honor of any man, but probably because so 

 well adapted to the herd. It is called also Fine Top, Burden's 

 and Borden's Grass. Varying greatly in characters according to 

 soil, location, climate and culture, some botanists have styled it 

 A. Folymorpha. It grows two to three feet high, and I have mown 

 it when four feet high. It grows well on hill-tops and sides, in 

 ditches, gullies and marshes, but delights in moist bottom land. 

 It is not injured by overflows though somewhat prolonged. In 

 marshy land it produces a very dense, strong network of roots 

 capable of sustaining the weight of men and animals walking- 

 over it. 



It furnishes considerable grazing during warm ^'spells" in win- 

 ter, and in spring and summer an abundant supply of nutrition. 

 It has a tendency, being very hardy, to increase in density af 

 growth and extent of surface, and will continue indefinitely, 

 though easily subdued by the plow. 



Out before maturing seed, it makes a good hay and large quan- 

 tity. It seems to grow taller in the Southern States, than it does 

 further north, and to make more and better hay and grazing. It 

 and timothy being adapted to the same soils, and maturing at the 

 same time do well together and produce an excellent hay. But 

 the red top will finally root out the timothy— if pastured much it 

 will do so sooner. 



