HIS FARMERS' BULLETIN is designed

THIS

to enable farmers and others to become familiar with the most important and most common grasses of the United States.

Each grass is illustrated and agronomic and botanical information concerning it is given.

Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry

WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief

Washington, D. C.

Issued February, 1922

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NE can readily learn to recognize many of the grasses, both cultivated and wild. It is not necessary to have any elaborate instruments for examining them or to acquire any detailed

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FIG. 1.-Orchard grass. A section showing how the young leaves are folded.

FIG. 2.-Redtop. A section showing how the very young leaf is inrolled.

knowledge of their structure. Nearly every grass is so distinctive that once a person has noted its obvious characteristics he will easily recognize it again. Though there are probably 6,000 distinct species of grasses in the world, only about 60 are important

cultivated plants, and not more than 20 wild species are abundant or valuable in any one locality.

FIG. 3. Structures about the collar: A, Italian rye-grass, showing ligule and narrow flangelike auricle; B, meadow fescue with very short ligule and sharp-pointed auricles; C, redtop with somewhat crenulate ligule but no auricles; D, Johnson grass, with fringed ligule.

Grasses are easily distinguished from all other plants by several peculiar characters. The roots of all, whether annual or perennial,