LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 2I9 



I will not talk to you much about blue-grass, because I know that 

 Dr. Waters is a better authority on that subject than I am. I want to 

 mention a few other grasses very briefly. 



Orchard Grass. — To the farmers of Missouri this grass is, generally 

 speaking, of no interest ; but there are parts of the southern section of 

 this State where it would do well. Wherever timothy will thrive I 

 would sow it, but where it does not thrive then orchard grass is the 

 next best hay grass. It is a good grass if handled right, but requires 

 more intelligent management than timothy does. It must be cut promptly 

 when ready to cut or the hay will be very inferior. 



Meadozv Fescue. — This grass is attracting attention in Eastern Kan- 

 sas ; driving out orchard grass and timothy. It is being planted on a 

 large scale out there. It is invading Western Missouri ; it may prove 

 to be of importance to you. They are growing it in the southwestern 

 portion of this State. In parts of Kansas they consider it the best grass 

 they have. It might pay you to experiment with it ; but you should 

 do so on a small scale until you know what it will do and how to grow 

 it. 



Bronic Grass. — In the southern half of Missouri this grass- will not 

 thrive at all; but in the northern part of the State it will grow and 

 thrive. In my judgment, this is the best pasture grass in the northern 

 half of the United States. It is fully as palatable as Kentucky bluegrass, 

 and yields more. It is somewhat difficult to eradicate as you go farther 

 east. In Nebraska and Dakota there is no difficulty in eradicating it. 

 It is to the Dakotas what timothy is to Missouri. 



I had hoped to be able to talk a little here today on the subject 

 of ''Farm Management," but I can only touch on the subject in a 

 general way. I will only stop to say this: That when I went 

 to Washington City, four years ago, I began to attempt to make the work 

 of the office of Grass and Forage Plants one of intense interest to the 

 farmer. I had found by experience in the state of Washington that 

 I could learn more in one month by going out and questioning the 

 farmer, going out on the farm and studying the farmer and his methods 

 and results, not always accepting the farmer's conclusions, but seeing 

 for myself the results he was getting and learning how he got those 

 results — I say I found I could learn more in one month in that way 

 than I could learn in a whole year on the experiment grounds at the 

 Experiment Station. But I found, too, that there were some things 

 I could not learn from the farmer. I heard a farmer say the other day — 

 a very intelligent farmer — in a talk at a big meeting in Tennessee, that 

 he had planted a crop the second time on the same-land and some kind 

 of a fungus disease had injured it; then he turned argund and said 



