Okchaed Grass 625 



lished and smothers it. In dry seasons and on thin lands, however, 

 better stands may usually l^e had by seeding alone than by using a 

 nurse crop. If seeded alone, a light cutting of hay is usually 

 secured the first year, but if a nurse crop is used, the grass is 

 not cut until the following year. 



Mixtures for Hay 



On account of its bunching habit of growth, orchard grass is 

 seldom seeded alone except where grown for seed. Even in the 

 seed-producing sections it is sometimes seeded with red or alsike 

 clover. The .latter is perhaps best, since is does not grow so tall, 

 and the orchard grass can be cut above the alsike, leaving the 

 stubble and most of the leaves of the grass with the alsike for 

 pasture or hay. Red clover, however, grows so tall that much of 

 it is cut with the orchard grass and the presence of the leaves- in 

 the seed is objectionable. If red clover is used with orchard grass, 

 the first crop is frequently cut for hay and the second crop for 

 seed. In subsequent years the red clover largely disappears, and 

 either crop may be cut for seed without difficulty. 



Toward the southern part of the timothy region, orchard grass 

 frequently replaces timothy for hay. Here, a mixture of twenty 

 pounds of orchard grass and eight or ten pounds of red or mam- 

 moth clover will make an excellent meadow ; usually two cuttings 

 may be had and both are used for hay. 



In those sections of the East where the practice of using general 

 mixtures of clovers and gTasses for hay is more common than in 

 the Central West, orchard grass should be included in such mix- 

 tures. A mixture of ten pounds of orchard grass, six pounds of 

 timothy, four pounds of redtop, five pounds of red clovc'r, and 

 three pounds of alsike clover to the acre will make an excellent 

 meadow. Tall meadow oat grass and meadow fescue also are 

 sometimes mixed with orchard grass. A mixture of such grasses 

 not only improves the palatability of the hay, but also increases 

 the yield over seeding any one grass alone. The practice of mixing 

 grasses both for meadow and for pasture is much more common 

 in Europe than in this country, but it is gaining in importance 

 here. 



