Note 49 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 2)

The high meadows in Canada are excellent, and by far preferable to the meadows round Philadelphia, and in the other English colonies. The further I advanced northward here, the finer were the meadows, and the turf upon them was better and closer. Almost all the grass here is of two kinds, viz. a species of the narrow leaved meadow grass49; for its spikes50 contain either three or four flowers; which are so exceedingly small, that the plant might easily be taken for a bent grass51; and its seeds have several small downy hairs at the bottom. The other plant, which grows grows in the meadows, is the white clover52. These two plants form the hay in the meadows; they stand close and thick together, and the meadow grass (poa) is pretty tall, but has very thin stalks. At the root of the meadow grass, the ground was quite covered with clover, so that one cannot wish for finer meadows, than are found here. Almost all the meadows have been formerly corn-fields, as appears from the furrows on the ground, which still remained. They can be mown but once every summer, as spring commences very late.