Milch Cows and Dairy Farming / Comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and Other Stock, the Selection of Milch Cows, with a Full Explanation of Guenon's Method; The Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and Cheese: Embodying the Most Recent Improvements, and Adapted to Farming in the United States and British Provinces. With a Treatise upon the Dairy Husbandry of Holland; To Which Is Added Horsfall's System of Dairy Management

by Charles Louis Flint

Rough-stalked Meadow grass

The Rough-stalked Meadow grass ([Fig. 60]) is somewhat less common than June grass, but is considered as equally valuable. It grows best on moist, sheltered meadows, where it flowers in June and July. It is easily distinguished from June grass, by having a rough sheath, while the latter has a smooth one, and by having a fibrous root, while the root of June grass is creeping. It possesses very considerable nutritive qualities, and comes to perfection at a desirable time; is exceedingly relished by cattle, horses, and sheep. For suitable soils it should form a portion of a mixture of seeds, producing, in mixture with other grasses which serve to shelter it, a large yield of hay, far above the average of grass usually grown on a similar soil. It should be cut when the seed is formed. Seven pounds of seed to the acre will produce a good sward. The grass loses about seventy per cent. of its weight in drying. The nutritive qualities of its aftermath exceed very considerably those of the crop cut in the flower or in the seed.