The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-12-15
GROWING GRASS FOR HAY AND
GRAZING.

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lecture delivered recently by Prot.
William II. Brewer, of Yale, on the
effect of we'll kept grass land He says:
Permanent grass lands are an i'm
portant factor of stability in the bust
ness of any country. 1t is the most
conservative element in agriculture. as
agriculture is the most conservative OF
Industries. That is, long established
grass lands constitute the least change
able part of the most slowly change
able of industries. From it's very rs
ture it must be so, and this fact neces
sarilY and inevitably influences the
business stability of a country or com
munity where such grass lands exist
B0tanjsts have described three o.
four thousand species of grasses. OF
which a very small relative number
have much value In forming the turfs
OF our climate and in other countries
similar to ours. As botanists study
grasses, their most important charac
ters are those which relate TO the flow
ers and seed. By no other set Of char
acters have grasses been satisfactorily
classified, so as to be scientifically
studied 81 q whole or their relations to
the rest Of the vegetable kingdom un
derstood. The unit of classification
as used by botanists, is The spe cies, but
the individuals of species vary among
themselves and constitute groups
known as varieties. Varieties are
more chaugeable than species and ore
especially liable to be formed as re
suit Of cultivation, or when they grow
amid the conditions of GUILTY. alton
Hence we have many varieties of each
species of cultivated plants. All the
immense number of varieties OF maize
doubtless have arisen from one original
wild species, and so Of the varie
ties of potatoes, of wheat, oats, barley,
etc.
The tendency which plants have to
run to varieties to suit the local con
dieions shows itself even in the uncul
tlvatCd weeds that infest the fields anG
gardens Special varieties adapt them
selves to the local conditions they find
in cultivated soil, because thus better
adapted to fight their way and main
tain hold against the expressions of
the farmer or gardener who tries to
Kill them
Precisely so with the turf grasses. A
single species may exist as numerous
varieties, some more robust or aggree-
sive, others less SO having d}fforen'
capacities to Withstand too vet or to-
dry periods, to stand droughts, or
other vIcissirudes of climate, or to en-
dure AID flourish under the grazing Of
cattle. Let US keep in mind, also, that
while the natural tendency OF plants is
to produce seed and propagate IN that
way, IN crops Of grass, either when cut
for hay or grez-d for pasture, 1t II
foliage, not seed, that is the aim Of the
farmer.
In nature and in art, there are two
ways by which plants are pr5paGated
the sexual method through the pro
ductiOn of flowers and seed and the
mon sexual method" which includes
many forms, euch as underground
stems in some species, bulbs, Cubrre
runners, etc, tillerlng with grains an0
grasses, etc. In artificial culture,
propagation by means Of gratis, Duds.
cuttings, and similar ways belong to
the non sexual methods, and are yer,
extensively practIced. Gardening aDd
fruit growing could hardly be carried
on without this.
Now, in the production Of new varie
ties by nature, the vast nj 1rIty come
through the seed. Some plants of
new generation Gift r from the parents,
1t may be that the new variety will
perpetuate itself from the seed, more
often it does not, at least with that
certainty and completeness that farm
ers and gardeners wish. Hence, in
farm and garden practice, where crops
are from annual plants, we seek varie
ties that grow true to the seed as
is the case with our grains and most