*Determined by Stutzer's method described in the Station Report for 1885, p. 40.

NOTES ON GRASS IN ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The following abstracts from answers to letters of inquiry addressed to the Station, in regard to grasses have sufficient general interest to justify publishing them here:

It blossoms

The grass sent is Annual Spear Grass, Poa annua. earlier than any other grass in the spring, and may be found in blossom at almost any time in the year when it is not cold enough for heavy frosts. It makes a beautiful turf where it is not too shady, and where there is enough treading to keep other grasses from running it out. Nothing stands being trodden under foot so well. It is a rich nutritious grass, but the yield of course is very small. It seeds freely and perpetuates itself so, as well as by rooting from joints of the stem.

Per cent. of Potash.

The grass betrays itself even before opening the package. It is Sweet Vernal, Anthoxanthum odoratum. Only one other Connecticut grass has this odor; that is Holy Grass, Hierochloa borealis,-so called because it was considered sacred to the Virgin Mary-and that is very different in appearance.

You can pick out Sweet Vernal as soon as it greens in the spring. It grows in quite light green tufts, the leaves and stalks are short and stubbed like pin feathers, and when crushed give out this strong and agreeable odor. A little of it gives a mow of hay a sweet odor, but its green foliage is bitter and not relished by cattle. It is a perennial though an annual variety of it is sold here sometimes as "true perennial."

The annual is much smaller and comparatively worthless.

The specimen which you send is variously called "June-Grass," "Blue-Grass," or "Kentucky Blue-Grass," Poa pratensis. There is no botanical difference between our June-Grass or Blue-Grass, and the Kentucky Blue-Grass. In portions of Kentucky, JuneGrass grows very lustily to the exclusion of most other forage grasses. This is the famous "blue-grass " region, but its product only differs from our June-Grass in its ranker growth. Many farmers use the name Blue-grass for Poa compressa, a very different thing, often called Wire-grass.

"Blue" is more applicable to P. compressa than P. pratensis, for the foliage of the former is a bluish green. This illustrates the confusion there is in the common names of grasses.

This Wire-grass is easily distinguished from June-grass by its color and its stalks which are flattened while those of June-grass are round.

You ask how to distinguish Blue or June-grass from Red-top. The leaf tips of June-grass are boat-shaped or awl-shaped, those of Red-top are flat and pointed. June-grass has very strong underground stems like Quack. Red-top has few or none. The stem of June-grass is less leafy than Red-top. It blossoms earlier. The seeds of June-grass are bunched, three to five of them together, and they are somewhat webby at the base. Those of Red-top are not bunched. Each is by itself and not webby.

June grass is not the best lawn grass. It is rather coarse and needs constant cutting. It does not make a good hay crop with us, for its foliage is at the bottom, the stalks are not leafy. It is best in pastures which are not too dry. It stands close feeding though not so close as Rhode Island Bent. When a pasture is overstocked, it will mostly disappear while the bent remains, but when the cattle are taken off it appears again.

The grass is Velvet-grass or Soft-grass, called in some parts of England "Yorkshire Mist," Holcus lanatus. It is not a native of this country. With us it is of very little or no value and is not worth a trial, I think, unless it covers ground where nothing else seems to do well. It has been raised at the south and is well spoken of in some quarters.

"What grass seed can I sow on rather wet land plowed occasionally to keep down bushes?"

You can probably get in Hartford or New York, seed of roughstalked meadow-grass, Poa trivialis, and of "creeping bent." You might have success with them if the land is too wet for June grass. Nerved Meadow-grass, Glyceria nervata, would stand a good chance of staying on the land and doing well; so would Blue-joint, Deyeuxia Canadensis, but you cannot get the seed in market. An experiment in seeding with these would be very valuable. They are strong native grasses, inclined to be permanent; perhaps that is a reason why they are not popular in the seed trade!

This is Quack, Agropyrum repens, which varies so much in its appearance that it is not always recognized unless caught in its celebrated act of growing through a potato! It is a curse on cultivated land, but I have seen meadows full of it in this State which gave a heavy crop of excellent hay. and puts up with almost any kind of soil. ter for covering unsightly road or railroad vent washing.

It spreads rapidly, There is nothing betembankments to pre

WORK FOR THE STATE DAIRY COMMISSIONER.

The chemical work required by the Dairy Commissioner during the current year has been done at this Station and expert testimony furnished in court whenever necessary.

EXAMINATION OF BUTTER.

On page 133 of our Report for 1886 the chemical methods of examination are given in detail. The method of determining volatile fatty acids has been somewhat modified in view of recent investigations made abroad.

The fat is saponified in a closed flask, with potassium hydrate solution (free from carbonates) without the addition of alcohol. Barium hydrate is used for the subsequent titration. Otherwise, the method now used by us is the same as there described.

Since that report, forty-five samples of suspected butter have been examined for the commissioner, of which thirty-five were imitation butter. The specific gravity of the imitation butter, determined as described in our report for 1886,-varied between .8583 and .862. The volatile fatty acids in 2.5 grams of filtered fat expressed in cubic centimeters of normal potassium hydrate solution varied between 0.5 and 6.4. A single sample of genuine butter had the exceptionally low specific gravity of .8625. The others varied between .8644 and .8666. The volatile acids varied between 12.82 and 16.81.

EXAMINATION OF MOLASSES.

Fifty samples of molasses have been examined for the Dairy Commissioner. Of the first twenty-two samples collected by him after the passage of the law regarding the adulteration of molasses, nine were found to be mixed with glucose; one also contained salts of tin. After giving public notice that after a fixed date, all sellers of such molasses would be prosecuted, further samples were drawn and sent here for examination, but they all proved to be pure molasses. Apparently molasses mixed with glucose is no longer sold in the State.