GRASS.
1 Myek-ping, . . . BURM. Erba, IT.
Gras . . . Dm, Gca. Herva Pon% lierge, Gazon, . . . FR. Traba; Travu, . Rua.
Ghas, ..... HIND. Yerba . SP In England the grasses have received great and deserved attention.. In some places hay grasses are cultivated ; in some, those adopted for pastur age or for catch-meadows; while in other localities preference is given to varieties which yield early or late pasturage, or have the recommendation of being suitable to some peculiarity of the soil. In India, however, the subject has received no such minute consideration, although deserving accurate investigation and careful experiment. The pasture lands are everywhere left to nature. There is generally a right of common pasturage, and there is nothing to prevent the village cattle from roam ing at discretion.
- The populations of Central and Southern Asia are largely pastoral and agricultural, and the grasses useful for cattle are therefore of vital importance. Nonaades shift with the seasons of the year to their summer and winter grazing grounds ; and in India, partly in this manner, and in part trusting to their natural grasses, they are still able to rear large herds and flocks, though the waste lands of India are yearly becoming more tilled to meet the wants of the increasing populations. Grass is but seldom cut and stacked. as hay. The rapid growth and subsequent dryness render many natural Indian grasses unfit for pasture at the end of the year ; and grass-cutters, who provide horses, usually search for and collect the dubh grass, the Cynodon dactylon.
Sir W. Jones observes (As. Res. iv. p. 242) ' that it is the sweetest and most nutritious pasture for cattle, and its usefulness, added to its beauty, induced the Hindus, in their earliest ages, to believe that it was the mansion of a benevolent nymph.' Even the Veda celebrates it, as in the following text of the Al'harvana ; May Durva, which rose from the water of life, which has a hundred roots and a hundred stems, efface a hundred of my sins, and prolong my existence on earth a hundred years.' In the east coast of the Peninsula of India, the vegetation of most plants is interrupted for a longer period by the dry season, than in Europe by the winter. The sandy tracts about Madras re main perfectly arid, only a little relieved by partial showers during the south-west monsoon. 'Phis alternation of drought and heat at one season, and of heavy rains at another, necessarily pre cludes the pasture grounds of the Karnatic from attaining the verdant, flourishing condition ob servable in extra-tropical countries. At the same time, however, the temperature of the cold weather admits of the production of a consider able quantity of serviceable grass.
No grasses are cultivated in China for food for animals. The country produces many species fitted for rearing flocks and herds, and are exten sively cultivated in the south of China for weaving floor matting of various degrees of fineness, the coarser kinds of which are used also to construct sheds to screen workmen when building houses, and even the walls of the huts tenanted by the poor ; the best comes from Lien-tan, west of Canton.
Of the grasses eaten. by cattle, Sir A. Burnes mentions that three are cultivated in Kabul,— Rishka or Medicago sativa, the common lucerne ; Shaftul; a:kiiid:of trefoil ; and the Si-barga (three leaves), a. clover new to Eurape, which from its great yield •was named Trifolium giganteum.
Another plant, the Melilotus leucantha, ot Bokhara clover, differs much from the Trifolium giganteum in its properties, though, like it, of luxuriant growth.
In the Rallis of the Panjab, and in the bar ' tracts during the rains, the whole surface of the plain is covered with grass. Thirty sorts—each with its distinctive name—were collected in the rainy season near Lahore.
Dr. Royle mentions that the grasses of Hurriana (Sirsa and Rohtak)—and it is true of the rakhs generally—consist of species of Panicum, Pennise tum, Cenchrus,.Chmtaria, Dactyloetenium,Chloris, Eleusine, Aercahne, Poa, Eragrostis, and Andro pogon, and to these, species of Saccharum and Rottbollia should be added. In one place a clover or lucerne, Shaftul, is grown, also Sinji, but this principally by Europeans for their horses and other cattle. Cattle in India are usually fed (besides grass) on Bhusa, or, as it is called in Panjabi, Turi, the chopped straws of wheat and barley ; besides which they get Karbi the dried stalks of Jowar (Sorghum vulgare) ; 'this latter when green and fresh is called Charm Chopped leaves of the Ber (both Z. vulgaris and Z. num mularia), called Mulla, are much used, and are said to be fattening. Dr. Henderson mentions that in Shahpur, and one or two other districts, turnips are grown very extensively for feeding cattle during the cold weather, and they often attain a larger size than in Europe. A few of these are used in times of famine for food, as the Markan grass, the wild Sawank, and Phog. The seed of Calligonum polygonum is used as human food in the Panjab in times of famine. Dhaman or Anjan (Pennisetum cenchroides) is considered the best grass for cattle, rapidly improving their condition, and increasing their produce in milk. Jhang is a scented grass, probably Andropogon schcenanthus; and the root of A. muricatum forms the khaskhas used in matting tatties and screens for cooling purposes.