LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 21 3 



the memory of those departed champions ; but at the same time I will go 

 and gather me flowers, I will select the best ones, I will gather me 

 bouquets of American Beauties, of Heliotrope, of Cape Jessamine, and 

 with all the rare flowers I will weave a garland, and with bands of 

 immortelles I will hang it upon the altar that has been reared to the mem- 

 ory of the noblest and the best — the red, white and roan. 



GRASS AND FORAGE PLANTS. 



(Dr. W. J. yplllman, Agriculturist, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. O.) 



Some three years ago, when the last census figures were published, 

 1 fotmd a great deal of valuable data in them concerning the grasses 

 and forage plants of the country. I made a set of maps showing the 

 distribution of them over the country and the production of every 

 grass and forage plant of any kind reported in the census. On these 

 maps I showed the distribution of timothy or of timothy and red clover, 

 because they are usually sown together. After I had made that map I 

 was able to understand one thing I had not understood before. The 

 office of Grass and Forage Plants receives a great inany letters from 

 farmers ; but to my surprise, when I went to Washington City four 

 years ago, I found that half of the correpondence came from the 

 southern states, and that the other half came from the states west of 

 the State of Missouri. We had practically no correspondence from the 

 region which .that map showed to be the timothy region, except that 

 relating to alfalfa. Why? Because in that section of the country the 

 grass problem had been solved by the fanners before the experiment 

 stations were established. Outside of the region of timothy and clover, 

 the grass problem was the leading problem of the farmer. I took oc- 

 casion, a little later, to go over the experiinent station literature on 

 grasses and forage plants, and to my surprise, I found that nine-tenths 

 of the literature that has been published by the experiment stations on 

 these subjects comes from the region outside of the timothy region. 

 For instance, taking up an old bulletin, one of Professor Sanborn's, from 

 Missouri, this was about all he had to say : "Timothy is practically the 

 only hay grass of the State ;" the bulletin also stated that blue grass was 

 about the only pasture grass of the State. But from Arkansas, Kansas, 

 Nebraska, Colorado, Louisiana and Tennessee there are stacks of bulle- 

 tins on these subjects. 



Now, for four years past, most of the energy has been devoted to 

 a study of the subject of grasses and forage plants, a study which is 

 of vital importance to the farmers of Missouri. You will be interested 



