MISCELLANY 



225 



and is greedily eaten by all classes of stock. Yet reed 

 canary-grass is practically unknown to American farm- 

 ers because of its exceedingly poor seed habits. Its 

 seed falls almost the moment it is mature, and it is 

 very difficult to get a stand from apparently good seed. 

 Certain strains of this grass, however, hold the seed 

 fairly well, and there is an opportunity for the plant 

 breeder to add a valuable grass to the limited list of 

 good American farm grasses by producing a strain of 

 reed canary-grass with good seed habits. 



Bermuda grass, the best pasture-grass in the South, 

 and one of the best in the world, as stated elsew T here in 

 this volume, does not produce seed in this country, ex- 

 cept in parts of Florida. Arizona, and Southern Cali- 

 fornia. In one respect this is an important advantage, 

 because Bermuda, like Johnson grass, is very tenacious 

 of life, and, when once established, is decidedly diffi- 

 cult to eradicate, unless one thoroughly knows how to go 

 about it. It is, perhaps, fortunate under the circum- 

 stances that it has such poor seed habits. On the 

 other hand, the seed is small and lacking in vitality, 

 so that even when the seed is available, it is seldom 

 possible to get a perfect stand from it, and it is, there- 

 fore, usually propagated from pieces of sod. 



Some grasses propagate so readily from the seed as 

 to render them a menace to the farmer. Crab-grass 

 and Johnson grass belong to this class. If Johnson 

 grass had the seed habits of Bermuda grass, it would 

 not be the great pest it is, for, although its root-stocks 

 are very tenacious of life, it spreads mostly from the 

 seed. Most of our otherwise valuable wild grasses are 

 not adapted to cultivation because of poor seed habits. 



