Bunchgrass

“ Grass sward rarely exists, nearly all grasses assuming the habit of growing in tufts or [Pg 112] bunches some distance (a foot or two) apart; hence the name of “bunch grass” commonly used, which however means not any one definite kind of grass, but serves to distinguish the grasses of the uplands from those of the moist lowlands, where true sward may be found. Between these bunches of grass the soil is fully exposed, and being free from roots and leaf-covering is compacted, unless its nature is such that the usually gentle rains do not produce a serious crusting of the surface. ”

“ The meadows of the valley are generally moist, and in the springtime boggy. Later in the season they become firmer, and some parts of them where not in possession of sedges, afford an abundant growth of “wild Timothy;” blue joint, Canada red-top and clover. In addition to these nutritious meadow-grasses, there is growing on the coarse granite, sandy land, a hard, tough wire bunch grass unfit for grazing except when quite young. This grass is highly prized by the Indians for making baskets and small mats. ”

“ In this way the Lilloet flats, which were once celebrated as rich feeding grounds, have now become bare, dusty plains, on which a few scattered plants of wild sage and absinthe still remain, where the bunch-grass has been destroyed. The facts, too, that the bunch-grass requires three years to come to perfection, and fully recover after being eaten down, and that, from its mode of growth in distinct tufts, the ground is really but scantily covered with herbage, confirm the belief that, for a stock farm to be successful, its range of pasturage must be very extensive. ”

“ This, of course, would lead us to discourage any couch-like grass. If, then, we have plots, and the soil of the lawn be sufficiently moist, we should recommend Poa trivialis to be sought in its stead.
Something like uniformity of colour is desirable; as, if we see bunches of the silvery-leaved Soft Grass, or the brown patches of the Fiorin, it is so unsightly that we should feel the necessity of introducing a new turf where it occurs.
2. Lawn Weeds.—Plantains, dandelions, and daisies can only be considered weeds whenever they occur in grass, but especially in the lawn. ”

“ This covers the hills and ridges over thousands of square miles, being absent only from the "blow-outs" and the moister valleys. Once established in the sandy soil the bunch-grasses cope very successfully with the fury of the wind and the shifting sand. However, if fire or over-grazing seriously reduces the bunches in size and vitality, subsequent winds may uproot and carry them away. But on the whole the bunch-grasses are very effective sand binders, and it would be a great calamity indeed if they ”

“ The native prairie grasses have been in considerable part displaced by grasses introduced from more humid regions. Weeds are very numerous (about 125) ; and some, notably the sand-bur (Solanum rostratum) , cockle-bur, and tumble-weeds among indigenous, and the Russian thistle (Salsola tragus) and purslane among non-indigenous species, are agricultural pests. Nothing can surpass in beauty the rank grasses and bright flowers that grow on the lowlands and rolling uplands of a virgin prairie—now hardly to be found in the state. ”

“ Yes, though after a few years blue-grass, on a true blue-grass soil, roots every other grass out and reigns with a divided empire with white clover. 4. Any good corn or wheat soil will produce good blue-grass—the usual method of obtaining a blue-grass pasture is as follows: To one bushel of good timothy seed one quart of red clover is added, and this quantity is made to cover from five to six acres. The seeding may be done in the fall with fall grain, in the spring with oats, or on stubble or wheat land on the snow in February. ”

“ But whatever its origin, it is now growing in such vast prairies that whole tribes of Indians used to look to it as the staple of their food. But better crops are fast displacing it, and as for the Indian, California no longer belongs to him or his bison-herds. Further east, that is to say, from the Platte Valley to the Sierra Nevada, the "bunch grass" was the great natural provision for the wild herds of the wild man, and it still ranks as one of the most valuable features of otherwise barren regions in Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. ”

“ Such a look of leisure, of freedom, of amplitude, as these forest groves give to the landscape!
What vistas, what aisles, what retreats, what depths of sunshine and shadow! The grass is as [228] uniform as a carpet, and grows quite up to the boles of the trees. One peculiarity of the blue-grass is that it takes complete possession of the soil; it suffers no rival; it is as uniform as a fall of snow. Only one weed seems to hold its own against it, and that is ironweed, a plant like a robust purple aster five or six feet high. This is Kentucky's one weed, so far as I saw. ”

“ Here we frequently took the stock upon the hills at night, where the bunch-grass grows among the sage brush. This grass, as its name indicates, grows in bunches about a foot high and about the same in diameter, bearing a profusion of yellow seeds about the size of a kernel of wheat. This makes excellent feed, and the stock is very fond of it.
At this point Mother Nature is gradually changing the old scenes for new ones. The big brawny mountains with their little ones clustered at their feet are just before us ”

“ It comes early in the spring, and dies early in the fall. Timothy and blue-grass are the only sorts cultivated near us; but I think yard-grass would improve our pastures, as it keeps green much longer than blue-grass. In my opinion, crab-grass would answer well for pasture-grass in moist situations.
{201} But little cultivation amongst the English settlers took place till this year, but most of the Americans raised some Indian corn from their first settling; and this year a little wheat, oats, &c. This year, perhaps, 200 acres of 294 wheat have been harvested in the different prairies ”

“ They do not seem to climb the grass for the seeds, but only hunt for them on the ground."
"It's only old grass, then, and it ain't wheat after all!" exclaimed Willie, in some disappointment.
"It is the ants' wheat," was the reply. "A grain of our wheat might prove too heavy for them. They generally prefer the seed of the buffalo-grass, a kind of grass that grows plentifully in Texas. It is very amusing to see one of the foragers after he has found a seed to his liking. No matter how far he has strayed from the road, he always knows his way straight back. ”

“ The buffalo grass, having a short, rounded blade resembling the needles of a pine tree, and which cured like hay in the dry air, was very nutritious for the stock, but even where it grew, its small brown bunches covered but little of the soil. I have observed, and it is generally conceded, that the eastern prairie grass has of late each year spread westward, because "rain follows the plow." ”

“ Second, grass populations change with the seasons. Cool-season grasses (foxtail barley, Indian rice grass, Kentucky bluegrass, needle-and-thread grass, Sandberg blue grass, and slender wheatgrass) flourish during spring and fall. During the warm summer the blue grama, inland saltgrass, little bluestem, prairie cordgrass, prairie sandreed, and switchgrass predominate. This natural adaptation to seasonal conditions uses the greatest potential of the growing season and at the same time provides species that will flourish in both wet and dry cycles. ”

“ The sort known in the market as T. pratense perenne is probably intermediate between the wild species T. pratense and T. medium. Our own experiments have shown that, on cultivating T. medium, which is a sand-lover, in strong land, in three years it has been very difficult to distinguish it from some of the varieties of T. pratense. We incline, therefore, to the opinion that as the T. medium holds to sandy soils in the wild state, its seed was brought into cultivation with a view to light-soil cropping ”

“ This great pasture land covers Western Texas, Indian Territory, Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota, Eastern New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, and extends far into British America. The southerly and south-easterly portions produce the largest growth of grass, but it lacks the nutritious qualities of that covering the higher and drier lands farther north and west. Rank-growing and bottom-land grasses contain mostly water: they remain green until killed by frost, when their substance flows back to the root, or is destroyed by the action of the elements. ”

“ Blue-grass.—No other pasture grass equals Kentucky blue-grass wherever it thrives. It makes a close sod, preventing the growth of weeds and withstanding tramping, and contains a high percentage of protein. While it is best adapted to limestone soils, it is grown with success on clay land outside of limestone areas. It is slow in making a heavy sod, as a rule, and partly because the seeding is too light on account of low germination. The rule is to seed with timothy and other grasses which furnish the greater part of the pasturage for two or three years. ”

“ Here, then, we have, he continues, a grass that will insure a "good catch" if the seed is fresh; that can endure severe drouth; that produces an abundant supply of foliage; that is valuable for pasture in early spring, on account of its early and luxuriant growth; that makes a valuable hay; that shoots up quickly after being cut; and affords a fine crop of aftermath for grazing during the late fall and winter months.
The Professor is very anxious that the farmers of Kansas should test this grass during the season of 1883. ”

“ RYE GRASS, or RAY GRASS (Lolium perenne, Fig. 35) , has, of late years, been cultivated in some countries, to considerable extent, as fodder for cattle. Its agricultural merits were first discovered in Norfolk, and, thence, the seeds have been distributed through the greater part of the kingdom; those who purchase them little suspecting that the plant was a weed in their own fields. In dry pastures, and by road sides, this kind of grass is extremely common.
When sown in high or sandy lands, either alone or mixed with clover, it yields an earlier crop than most other grasses ”

“ The Mixture of Grasses is secured by constant mowing and rolling, by which means anything like a wild method of grass-growth is avoided. When, however, a lawn is left for a long time without such careful treatment, some of the grasses are sure to stool out and grow bunchy. In this case, the quickest way of putting the matter to rights will be to remove the offending tufts, and introduce new turf, taking care to keep the whole in order by the scythe and the roller. ”

“ The grass with which they are mostly clothed, is of a superior quality. The celebrated 'buffalo grass' is of two kinds, both of which are species of the grama of New Mexico, and equally nutritious at all seasons. It is the same, I believe, that is called 'mezquite grass' in Texas, from the mezquite tree which grows there in the same dry regions with it. Of this unequalled pasturage the great western prairies afford a sufficiency to graze cattle for the supply of all the United States. ”

“ Over-grazing often Results in Bare Hills and Blowing Sand. were to be removed and nothing substituted. It is due to them more than to any other single type of plants that the vegetation of the hills is enabled to persist. Within the shelter of the bunch-grass association scores of valuable species thrive that in its absence would never have found access to the region. ”

“ Two sorts of fine Agrostis are honestly sold under the trade name of Rhode Island bent, and, as trade goes, we may consider ourselves lucky if we get even the coarser one. The finest—a little the finest—Agrostis canina—is a rather rare, valuable, and elegant grass, which should be much better known by grass farmers, as well as gardeners, than it is. These are both good lawn as well as pasture grasses.” The grass usually sold as Rhode Island bent is Agrostis vulgaris, the smaller red top of the East and of Europe. ”

“ I recently saw an old plantation that was set out over twenty years ago, and the present plants are still strong and healthy, and bearing good bunches of well-filled fruit, so that there is no question as to the suitability of the soil or climate. Bananas do best on rich scrub land, and it is no detriment to their growth if it is more or less covered with stones as long as there is sufficient soil to set the young plants. Shelter from heavy or cold winds is an advantage, and the plants thrive better under these conditions than when planted in more exposed positions. ”

“ Though in many parts arid and sterile, dreary and desolate, the long bunch grass (Festuca) , the short curly buffalo grass (Sisleria dactyloides) , the mesquit grass (Stipa spata) , and the Gramma, or rather, as it should be called, “Gamma” grass (Chondrosium fœnum) , [11] which clothe the slopes west of Fort Laramie, will enable it to rear an abundance of stock. The fertile valleys, according to Lieutenant Warren, “furnish the means of raising sufficient quantities of grain and vegetables for the use of the inhabitants, and beautiful healthy and desirable locations for their homes. ”

“ Now too appears the sweet grass which the natives call burgu, a special characteristic of the riverside vegetation as far as Say. It is a kind of aquatic couch-grass nearly level with the soil when on the subsiding of the floods the ground becomes dry again. Directly the soil is once more inundated, however, the burgu sends out shoots with extraordinary rapidity, and they grow so fast that they soon reach the top of the water. The natives make a sweet beverage of the leaves of this grass, of too sickly a taste to be fancied by Europeans, but negroes are very fond of it. ”