Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-02-20
LECTURE ON GRASSES.


The lecture to farmers Tuesday afternoon
at tho experiment station on "GraSsesn
was given by Dr.. Z. II. Jenkins, vice.direc-
tor OF the Connecticut experiment station.
The speaker was introduced by President
BucEham and he made his subject both
entertaining and instructive. Grasses now
comprises a single botan cal class. Ii lawns
are good, don I water them too often in dry
weather Il, the roots will stay near the
top. Some grasses have underground stems
and others have underground blossoms
which seed and grow. All grasses flower
and reproduce by seeding. They, as rule,
cross aud fertilile ana mostly by the agency
OF wind. There arc 300 genera of grasses
and from 5000 to 3jOG species,
The science OF seeding and cultivating
grass is comparatively new, and the former
was not done until 1911. There should be
definite grass speech, that would not per-
nit confounding of different species under
the same name. Botanical names would,
here have great advantage. Farmers
should have some definite plan for studying
the subject. Every grange should take it
up, and village grass garden or
collection of from y to 100 la
belled grasses, would he a good thing.
Until farmers know different grasses by
heat ard cold, etc, scientific rules tor grass
cultivation cannot be given. \ farmer
shouId he able to recognize a kind of grass
at any season Of the year, Cheap seeds are
popular, and until farmers demand the best
quality of seeds and know what they want,
dealers will not keep them. In fact the best
soeIsmen oftcntimes cannot distinguish the
different species Eed top and timothy are
about the only seeds that can be bought
true to name. In Connecticut they now
have gras, plots, which are used to study
gra,, Sp4cie, aud characteristics.
Ola pastures are as rule best, and
piougEng them ordinarily not advised
Any Ola well kept meadow Will usually get
down to II mixture OF tine red top, and Ken
| lucky blue grass, together with little
sleeps ieacue. TO get rid of various com
mon growths N pastures, narrow bladed
hoe was advised. In winter the buckle
| berry, shumach, etc, can DE broken OFT and
/ this treatment Is good.
QUESTIONS.
The questioning brought out the follow
| ing points Farmers claim to get better
| timothy seed from Canada than from the
| West, no remedy advised for pasture badly
| grown up to brakes, II Is not generally pos
sible to get fine varieties OF red top; if a
farmer had fine variety of gras,
he might best raise his own seed
chess grass is not poisonous but poor; timo-
thy as now raised is one of poorer grasses,
but nevertheless. largest used in cities; sod
in the early fall and no protection generally
given: clover seed sometimes remains in the
ground years before sprouting: cut most
grasses Just at or before bloom, but or
Chard grass earlier: advantage OF
ashes is no; so much as q fertilizer, rs that
the all,ali makes the soil better capable e
hold water, promotes the degeneration %
microbes, and consequent decay Of soil sub
stance.
Mr.. VI. T.. Dare Matrou Of the House o
Shelter Albany, informs u- that Dr. Ken
nedY'- Fuvuri'o II NEEDY is used in that in
stitutiou for dyspepsia aud Bi.liousness wild
great satisfaction.