Show Grass Lore For Farmers and Others Continued from Page Three grass is grass but grasses are easily easily easily easi easi- ly distinguished from ah ali other plants by several peculiar characteristics cs From the expert we learn lea that that the roots of all whether annuals or perennials are slender and anti thread thread- like The stems are jointed usually usual usual- ly cylindrical and hind commonly hollow but solid in such spec species es as corn and sorghum m. m In the bamboo and a few other grasses the sterna stems ar are woody The joint is called a node and the part between the joints Is an inter- inter node The leaves are usually long and narrow parallel veined and are attached ed at the nodes first o on one side Bide and then on on the other so that they are in two The lower part of the leaf leat encircles encircles encircles en en- circles the stem as a sheath while the upper portion the blade is more or less flattened In some grasses the blades are folded in others in- in rolled in the bud Where the the blade blade and the sheath join the texture and color are usually different this joining joining joining join join- ing part being known as the collar ollar Th The flower clusters of grasses exhibit exhibit exhibit ex ex- hibit a great many forms and many I grasses may at once be recognized by the forms of these clusters Each branch appears from the base of an but for the most part leaves or rudiments of leaves do not occur In the flower cluster luster I Most people do not think of corn I wheat oats barley rye ryo rice sugar sugarcane sugarcane sugarcane I cane and the like as s grass rass but such I is their botanical al classification On Oa the other hand the term terni grass is I r t rw T. T r. r I popularly applied to all the green herbage on which cattle and other and this would include m many ny plants which are not botanically botanically botani- botani cally related d to the true grasses such a as th the clovers alfalfa et cete cete- ra The grasses furnish the principal principal principal pal food of both man and beast and andare andare andare are the foundations of oC agriculture ure Singularly enough the most most Im important important im im- grasses the cereals are not Known in the wild state and their cultivation extends so far back into that even their places of oJ origin are unknown Either their wild counterparts have become extinct extinct ex ex- or the cereals have been so developed developed de de- d and changed by cultivation Uon that thai their wild forms are not longer Ie Ian in This Co h Many Species Specie Country un Altogether there are about 1400 species of of- grass growing in the Unit United d States In one state stat alone llone Washington som some species are found Originally ri al almost one half the area of the Un United t d States consisted consisted consist consist- ed of prairies the principal herbage of which was grasses and the existence existence exist exist- ence of this of of this vast dom domain n of grassland grassland grassland grass grass- land has never been fully disc discovered vered that trees grow readily enough on these prairies once they h have ve been introduced ed there Of all the hay grasses cultivated In the United States timothy thy is is by far the most important its acreage being four times as great as that of all the oth others rs put put- together and equaling that that- of all hay plants hay plants in including including including in- in clover and alfalfa n o |