132 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
coarse, rough, strawy character of its ripe stems and chaffy heads 
shows clearly enough that the fodder value of the plant is peculiarly 
liable to deteriorate as it grows older. ‘The merit of the analysis con- 
sists merely in showing that there is an abundance of nutritive matters 
actually present. It is the farmer’s business so to manage the crop 
that these nutritive matters may be put to profitable use. 
The statements of standard European authorities, to which reference 
was just now made, leave little more to be said in respect to this grass, 
except that it would seem to be specially well suited to a thinly settled 
country like our own, where the cheapness and poverty of the land 
and the high cost of labor tend to prevent high farming, and to en- 
courage the growth of such crops as can be obtained at little cost of 
labor and dung. Gasparin,* for example, says of it: “This plant does 
not really prosper unless its roots are in contact with water. It will 
grow indeed on dry land, but less vigorously. Loam that is rather 
sandy than clayey, upon the borders of brooks or bodies of water, 
suits it best. It should be mown before flowering, lest the hay should 
become too hard. Although of coarse appearance, the forage is 
readily eaten by cattle, if it has been cut early enough. The plant is 
abundant on the plains of Lombardy. The hay of normal quality 
contains 1.49% of nitrogen” (equal to 9.31% of albuminoids). 
In the Duke of Bedford’s experiments upon the produce of different 
grasses, it appeared that this grass, grown upon a black sandy loam 
and cut at the time of flowering, yielded at the rate of 12,250 lbs. of 
hay to the acre; when grown upon a strong, tenacious clay, the yield 
was at the rate of 17,000 lbs. to the acre. It should be said that the 
experiments by which these results were obtained were made in 
the small way, and under conditions particularly favorable for the 
growth of the grass. It may or may not be true that they indicate 
the largest yield of hay that could possibly be obtained from this grass. 
But it is to be noted that, in actual farm practice, amounts of hay 
much smaller than those just stated would be considered very large 
crops. 
According to Linneus,t the green grass is eaten by horses, oxen, 
sheep, and goats, but not by swine. He remarks that horned cattle 
are fond of it, and that the peasants in the south of Sweden mow two 
* In his “ Cours d’Agriculture,” 3™° édition, 4. 387. 
+ As cited in “ U. S. Patent Office Report,” 1847, pp. 518, 521. 
