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My own conviction is, that the hopes of Maine in an agricultural point of view, centre in her meadows and pastures. When she becomes a great producing state, it will be chiefly for meat, wool and dairy products. For the production of these she is eminently fitted by nature, and by a judicious pursuit of stock husbandry will her arable culture be best promoted.

Assuming that the views here presented, and which also constitute a prominent part of the burden of previous reports, are admitted as correct, the inquiry next in order would seem to be, How may the greatest amount and value of forage be produced at least cost? and next to this, What animals or what breeds will give the most valuable returns in proportion to the food consumed?

The importance of cultivating roots, both as an ameliorating crop and as furnishing a large amount of cattle food, has been urged in former reports; but when all the attention is paid to these which they deserve, (and it is believed that as many acres might be profitably cultivated as there are now square rods grown,) still the chief reliance for forage is, and always must be, upon grass and hay; and in response to a desire, strongly, although informally, expressed by many members of the Board of Agriculture, during the past year, I will attempt, not an elaborate treatise on the grasses of Maine, but, to submit a few observations on the hay crop and some facts regarding the grasses known to possess agricultural value; their qualities, habits, relative value, adaptation to different soils, methods of culture and of harvesting, which it is hoped may be of use in directing a larger share of attention to, as it appears to my mind, this vital element in our agricultural progress.

The grasses are a vast order of plants comprising several hundred genera and probably not less than three thousand species. It strikes one at the outset, as a somewhat remarkable fact, that of this vast number only three or four, perhaps half a dozen at the most, are under general cultivation in New England. A large proportion of these thousands are undoubtedly of little economical value, and some no better than weeds upon the farm; yet it is highly probable that there are some, perhaps many, not yet introduced to, or improved by cultivation, which are naturally, or by cultivation may be made to surpass our herdsgrass, redtop and clover. "It is not at all certain that we have the best kinds, nor that those we have are

brought to the greatest degree of perfection. Doubtless grasses might be improved by a proper course of culture as well as fruits and blooded stock. New and peculiar varieties might be produced, suited to different purposes, combining the excellencies of two or more species, and thus adding largely to the value of our pastures and meadows. This improvement would also extend to the stock fed upon the improved grasses, yielding us a better article of beef, butter, &c. Loudon, in his Encyclopedia of Agriculture, relates that the introduction into the island of Jamaica of a grass from Guinea, (Panicum polygonatum,) as food for birds, has been the cause of the increase of horned cattle in that island, until it has a better supply, both for the butcher and planter, than almost any other country. Few markets in Europe furnish beef of better quality and at a cheaper rate than is now done by the people of Jamai

ca." *

A very promising field of discovery is here open to the diligent, patient and interested observer, whose labors may be rewarded by acquisitions of inestimable value to the agricultural interests of the country.

Before commencing my remarks on the grasses, viewed simply as forage plants yielding a crop of hay, it has seemed to me, that as this report is intended for general circulation among farmers and farmers' sons, there may be many, especially among the latter, who would be glad to learn something of their natural history, their structure, and of the means of distinguishing them accurately one from another, who yet have no ready means of access to works on botany for this purpose; and that for such persons, a few pages devoted to this object might be highly useful in assisting them to observe, and in exciting a desire for minute and extensive knowledge which would lead to study and to the procuring of such assistance as would be required; and for this reason are the subjoined remarks added.

The first division in the vegetable kingdom, made by botanists, is into Flowering plants, called PHÆNOGAMIA, (a term derived from two Greek words significant of the fact,) which produce flowers, and also seeds which contain in embryo new plants of the same species; and

* Lapham on the grasses of Wisconsin.

next, Flowerless plants, called CRYPTOGAMIA, which have neither flowers nor seeds, but are propagated by means of little bodies of homogeneous structure, and not containing any embryo. Among these are the mosses, lichens, ferns, (commonly called brakes,) mushrooms, &c., &c. Phænogamia or flowering plants, are next divided into two classes, based on the fact that in one the plants grow by accretions to the outside, and in the other they grow from the inside, crowding outwards. The first of these is called EXOGENOUS, signifying outside growers. Cut off smoothly a twig from a rose bush or a limb from an apple tree, and you find it made up of bark, wood and pith, and that the limb has increased by additions to the outside. Plants of this class have seeds made up of two flat or rounded pieces fitting closely to each other, called seed leaves, lobes, or cotyledons, and are therefore called di-cotyledonous. They may also be recognized by examining the leaves, which have netted veins. Nearly all trees in cold and temperate latitudes belong to this class. The second class is called ENDOGENOUS, signifying inside growers. If we cut a corn stalk or a stem of asparagus or a palm tree, if we were where the palm grows, we find an entirely different structure from what prevails in the outside growers. The inside is not divided into bark, wood and pith, but is all alike, and does its growing from the inside, crowding outwards the expanding covering of the stalk. The seeds of this class have but one lobe or cotyledon, as we see in a grain of wheat or kernel of corn, and are therefore called mono-cotyledonous. Plants of this class have leaves with parallel veins. It includes all the grasses, properly so called. Clover, which is spoken of in common language as a grass, is not one in a botanical sense, as it belongs to the class exogens, having a seed with two lobes and netted veins.

These two classes are next separated into a few SUB-CLASSES, and these into many ORDERS; the orders into GENERA, of which each genus may be composed of one or of many SPECIES, and each species into more or less VARIETIES, which is the lowest grade of subdivision, unless it be into individuals.

The Grasses (Gramineæ) are an order; the Phleum, Agrostis, Poa, &c., are each a genus. Phleum pratense, (Herdsgrass,) Agrostis vulgaris, (Redtop,) Poa pratensis, (June grass,) are each a species of their several genera, the Phleum, Agrostis and Poa.

Plants (and animals too) will perpetuate their own species, but not always their own variety; and especially when under cultivation, which has a tendency to effect changes. The very term variety, carries the idea of variation, as that of species does the idea of specific or essential identity. Thus the seed of an apple will always produce an apple-never a pear or plum-but the seed of a Baldwin apple will not always produce a Baldwin apple, it being a particular form or variety produced by cultivation in a species peculiarly prone to variation. Any particular variety of fruit can be continued only

extension of the original individual, (by means of buds, scions or cuttings.) So in animals; the sheep, the horse, the ass, are each distinct species, and perpetuate their own species, although their progeny may vary in form, size, &c. If, as in the case of the two last named, propagation sometimes takes place between allied species, it ends with the individual produced; the mule or hybrid being incapable of propagation. So in plants, impregnation sometimes takes place between allied species, and hybrids or mules are the result, and these are usually sterile; but when different varieties (of the same species,) are crossed, we have what are termed cross breds, and these not only propagate by seed but are often of great value.

It is by no means improbable that culture and crossing are yet to give us forage plants superior to any now known; for it should be recollected that the cultivation of grasses is but in its infancy as yet. It may be worthy of mention in this connection, that the plants known as artificial grasses (clover, &c.) were cultivated in Europe at an earlier date than natural or proper grasses. It is stated on good authority, that Red clover was first sown in England about the year 1645-little more than two centuries ago-white and yellow clover soon after. Rye grass appears to have been first cultivated there in 1677, but none of the other natural grasses for nearly a century, or about 1750, when it was the practice of some innovating practitioners or progressive farmers to sow along with their clovers, seeds shaken out of the best natural meadow (upland) hay.* In New England the case is different. The necessities of the colonists led them to sow natural grasses before it was practiced in England,

*Morton's Cyclopedia of Agriculture.

probably two hundred years ago, and many years before clover was introduced.

In what follows on this branch of our subject, I have borrowed freely from the treatise of Prof. Buckman on the Natural History of British Grasses, his observations being remarkably accurate and comprehensive.

"Grasses, as they appear over the surface of the earth, naturally divide into two sections-cereal or cultivated corn grasses, and natural or wild grasses. Now the first of these do not appear to grow anywhere as wild plants, but may in all cases be deemed as derivatives obtained from wild examples by cultivation through a long series of years, and hence the varieties-not species-which will be found to abound in all of them. These variations maintain a great permanency of form, if the circumstances of cultivation be strictly maintained; but left to themselves they would either die out altogether, or revert again to some original wild type.

The natural grasses may conveniently be divided into the following groups:

1. Jungle or Bush Grasses.
2. Aquatic or Water Grasses.
3. Marine or Seaside Grasses.
4. Meadow or Pasture Grasses.
5. Agrarian or Fallow Grasses.

Jungle grasses are those which for the most part have a tendency to grow in a distinct and separate manner, assuming in some tropical examples where they reach their maximum, the height of 50 or 60 feet, presenting more the aspect of trees than the lowly herbs of our northern species.

In our own country, though we fall far short in size, yet many of our species have the same disposition of growing in distinct bunches, having no inclination to form a matted turf, but mix with shrubs or grow as separate plants beneath tall trees, or maintain a distinctive form even in meadows. Of these the following may be named as examples:

Aira caspitosa-Turfy Hair Grass;

Avena pratensis-Meadow Oat Grass, (narrow leaved ;)
Festuca elatior-Tall Fescue Grass.

There are others, which if cultivated by themselves, assume the

same distinctive and even cushion form of growth, as

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