76 Bkhard Frotschefs Almanac and Garden Manual. 



tucky, where indeed it lias seeined, without fire, to disappear ut- 

 terly 'i yet when rain camej the bright green spears promptly re- 

 carpeted the earth 



Wiih its underground stems and many roots, it sustains the 

 heat and drought of the Southern St-tes as well as those of Ken- 

 tucky ; where ind^^ed it is subjected to severer trials of tids kind 

 than in the more Southern IStates. In fa t, it be^rs the vicissi- 

 tudes of oar climate about as well as Bermuda grass, and is 

 nearly as nutritious. 



Blue grass giows well on hill tops, slopes, or bot om lands, if 

 not too wet and too poor. It may be >o\vn any tini«* from Sep- 

 tember tiil April, preferably perhaps m the l-tter half of Febru- 

 ary, or early in March. The b st c^stch I ever had was sown the 

 20th of Majch, on unbroken land, from vv^hicSs srash, leaves, etc., 

 had just been burned. The surface ot the land should ix- cleaned 

 «»f trash of ail kinds, smooth, even; and if ricentlv plowed and 

 harrowed, it should be rolied also. This ast pjoceeding is for 

 com|taciing the surface in order to ]'revenr the s ed fr^m sinking 

 too deep in tise ground. Without hanowiiig or bi ii>hirifr in, 

 many of them get in too de^p lo come up, even when the sutfas e 

 of tite laiid ha;s had the roller over ir. The hi si rain afie; seed- 

 ing will i)ot theai in «ieep enough, as the seeds are very miiuit *, 

 and the spears of gra^s small as line n- edles, and thereh»re unable 

 to get out fiom under heavy cover. These ^j)ears are so small as 

 ti» be invisible, except to close examin^itioi!, and in higher lati- 

 tudes, this coisdiiion CDntiuues tinough the lirs' year. Thus, 

 some who have sown the blue gr-^ss seed, seeing the tirst .year no 

 grass, imagine the^^ have been cheated, plant s me other crop, 

 and piobablj^ lose what close inspection would have shown to be 

 a good catch . I his, however is nor apt to occur in ihe SoutheiU 

 tier of States, as the growth here is moie lapd. The sowing 

 mt^otioned above, made on the 2(Jth of M^a-ch, came up promptly, 

 and in three mossths the grass Wiss fVom six to ten inches high. 

 One .year hire gives a finer gtowth and show than two m Ken- 

 tucky (ir any osher State so far North. 



Sown alone, 20 fo 26 pounds; that is, 2 bushels, should be 

 used. In mixtures, 4 to 6 pounds. 



ENGLISH OE PEKENNIAL EYE GEASS. 



(Lolium Perenne.) 



This is the first grass cultivated in England, over two centu- 

 ries ago, and at a still more remote pt'ri<jd in France. It was 

 long more wid^dly known and cultivated thai any other grass, 

 became adapted to a g>eat vaiiety of soil ' and condi ions, and a 

 vast number (seventy or more) vaiieaes produced ; s >me of which 

 were greatly improved, while othe s wer-' nfeiior and became 

 annuals. Inti0duc< d into the United States i » the fiist quarter 

 of th« current century, ir, has never become very popular, 

 although shown by the subjoined anjil\sis of Way not to be 

 dehcient in nutritive muter. In lUO parts of the drird giass cut 

 ia bloom were albuminoids 11.85, f aty m.xtiers 3.17, h at-pro- 



