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COMMERCIAL BENT GRASSES (AGROSTIS) IN CANADA 
By M. 0. Malte 
Illustrations 
Plate XIV. Figure 1. Agrostis stolonifera L. var. major (Gaud.) Farwell — 
Redtop 
Figure 2. Agrostis tenuis Sibth. — Browntop, Rhode Island bent. 
XV. Agrostis stolonifera L. var. compacta Hartman — Creeping bent.... 
XVI. Figure 1. Agrostis canina L. — Velvet bent 
Figure 2. Agrostis stolonifera L. — Non-stoloniferous variety with 
contracted panicle. 
XVII. Agrostis stolonifera L. — Stoloniferous variety with open panicle 
XVIII. Homologous variation in panicles 
XIX. Homologous variation in panicles 
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The remarkable increase in the popularity of the game of golf during 
the last ten years or so has, in Canada as well as in the United States, been 
in a very large measure responsible for an unprecedented demand for turf 
grasses of high quality, and particularly for grasses most eminently suited 
for greens. For the latter purpose forms of bent grasses ( Agrostis ) have 
long been recognized as possessing outstanding merits arid, this being the 
case, special efforts have, during the last few years, been made to supply 
the market with bent grasses of guaranteed superiority. 
Several years ago, the United States Department of Agriculture 
inaugurated rather extensive experimental work with turf grasses, one of 
the results being the introduction of the so-called stolon method of green- 
making, a method whereby a turf is produced, not from seed, but from 
cut-up stolons or surface runners. The grasses found most suitable for 
this purpose are certain hardy, durable, quick-growing forms of what is 
generally called Creeping bent grass. The runners of Creeping bent, 
which in several of its many forms may reach a length of 3 feet or more, 
will after being cut up in pieces about an inch long or a little longer, depend- 
ing upon the length of the internodes, and after being strewn on prepared 
ground and thinly covered with soil, root freely at the nodes and will, 
providing the water supply is adequate, in a very short time produce a 
green far superior to greens grown from seed at present available through 
the trade. 1 
The reliability and consequent popularity of the stolon method have 
naturally led to a search for suitable forms of Creeping bent of particularly 
fine texture. This search has revealed that Creeping bent, which so far 
i This method of propagation is by no means new. It was practised, with slight modifications, in Ireland, 
over a century ago. Says Richardson (30, p 164): 
"In laying down fiorin crops, we neither use seed nor roots, when we can procure stolones, of which every 
cultivator has a superabundance; and the mode of proceeding is very simple. 
"We commence at one end of the prepared area, and scatter stolones, at their full length, over a space ex- 
tending along the fence, and about 3 yards wide 
"We now from the raw ground behind us take up shovelfuls of the loose surface soil, and scatter it over 
the stolones, so as nearly to cover them, and so the business is done for so far; we then take up another breadth 
of three yards, spread strings over it, and cover them in the same manner.” 
And on page 126: 
"I raised fiorin roots in abundance, from my plots which had luxuriated greatly in the summer. I planted 
them in drills eighteen inches asunder, trusting that the stolones, with whose properties I was now acquainted, 
would, in the summer, shoot across the intervals, and clothe the whole surface. 
"I was right; in May the stolones began to project across, and so effectually to cover the new ground, that 
the rows were soon no longer distinguishable.” 
