30 A TEXT-BOOK OF GRASSES 
or may be used temporarily or incidentally for grazing 
but (except sometimes alfalfa) are never used alone for 
permanent pasture. 
25. The two most important pasture-grasses are blue- 
grass and Bermuda-grass. Other pasture-grasses of some 
importance are redtop, brome-grass, orchard-grass, mea- 
dow fescue. Still others are occasionally sown in mixtures 
but in the aggregate are almost negligible from the com- 
mercial standpoint. Some of these are the various fescue 
grasses, such as sheep’s fescue and red fescue, rye-grass, 
velvet-grass, and a few others. The most important 
legume used in permanent pasture mixtures is white 
clover. 
Blue-grass 
26. Blue-grass is the standard pasture-grass in the 
region lying east of the Great Plains and north of Arkansas 
and North Carolina and extending southward in the 
mountains. It is used occasionally in other parts of the 
country, but it does not succeed in the southern states. 
It thrives best on limestone soils and is not adapted to 
acid soils. The famous ‘‘blue-grass region” of Kentucky 
lies in the limestone country in the central and northern 
part of the state. The species is commonly called Ken- 
tucky blue-grass and in some localities, especially north- 
ward, it is called June-grass. 
Blue-grass is an aggressive species and, in soil adapted 
to its growth, tends to spread. It thrives in partial shade, 
and, in regions where the summers are hot and dry, it 
invades the open woods, where it furnishes valuable 
pasture. An excellent way to utilize brush-land or open 
timber-land is to clear out the underbrush and weeds and 
sow the land to blue-grass. At first it is necessary to keep 
