KENTUCKY BLUE GRASS. 101 



be cured in the wiiirow after having hiin in the swath for 

 a period more or less prolonged. Running the tedder 

 along the winrow will facilitate the curing process, but 

 usually the crop is not bulky enough to call for the use 

 of the tedder, before it is raked in winrows. Of course 

 it may be cured in the cock when desired, and when thus 

 put up, the cocks are not readily penetrated by rain. 

 This accounts for the fact that hay cut in fence corners 

 and by-places, which is frequently chiefly blue grass, 

 has long furnished a favorite material for topping stacks 

 of grain, clover and in fact nearly all kinds of farm 

 crops. 



On certain soils, blue grass comes into meadows with- 

 out being sown, and so as to furnish a large part of 

 the hay crop. In these instances it is usually ready for 

 cutting earlier than other grasses. The best time to har- 

 vest the crop under such conditions should be deter- 

 mined l)y the extent to which the other hay plants are 

 present, and by their proportionate value for hay. The 

 aim should be to cut the crop at that stage which will 

 oive the lar2;est amount of o'ood food, though some of 

 tlie plants should be over mature and some of them un- 

 der mature. 



Securing Seed. — While it would seem to be true that 

 blue grass is capable of maturing seed in any climate in 

 which the plants will live, it is also true that the prac- 

 tice of harvesting it for seed is confined to but limited 

 areas. At the present time the larger portion of the 

 seed sold in the market as Kentucky blue grass comes 

 from certain counties of Kentucky, Iowa and Missouri. 

 Of course, some other states furnish more or less. The 



