GREEN FORAGE AND HAY CROPS 101 



quality of hay than timothy alone, even for horses. 1 '' -Grown j -to* 

 gether the hay of the first season will consist largely of clover. 

 With the close of the second season, most of the clover disappears 

 and the decaying clover roots will nourish the timothy which re- 

 mains, so that a much larger yield of that grass is thereby obtained." 9 



Kentucky blue grass, often called June grass (Poa pratensis), 

 is a common grass in the meadows and pastures in northeastern 

 United States and also in other parts of the country. It makes a 

 compact sod when once established, is greatly relished by all kinds 

 of stock, and has high nutritious properties. 



" Blue grass ripens in early summer, having largely gathered the 

 necessary food materials) from air and soil during the preceding late 

 summer and fall. With the coming of spring it pushes forward so 

 vigorously that early in May the fields wear a thick, nutritious car- 

 pet of grass, and a little later the seed heads show. With seed- 

 bearing late in May, the plant's energies have been exhausted, and 

 blue grass enters a period of rest -which lasts several weeks. During 

 this time there is little growth, and if a midsummer drought 

 occurs the plants turn brown and appear to be dying. They 

 quickly revive with the coming of the fall rains, and again the 

 pastures are green arid growing. They .have had their rest, and 

 each plant is once more busy gathering nourishment for the coming 

 season's seed-bearing. The observant stockman soon learns 1 that it 

 is not wise to rely on blue grass pasture for a steady and uniform 

 feed supply for his cattle throughout the whole season. Accordingly 

 he understocks the pasture in spring, so that the excess of herbage 

 during May and June remains to be drawn upon during the mid- 

 summer dormant period, or he fully stocks it and makes up the 

 later shortage by partial soilage. In some districts it has been- 

 found profitable to graze blue-grass pastures lightly, or not at all 

 in summer, and allow the self -cured herbage to stand for winter 

 grazing. Kentucky blue glass is primarily a pasture grass and 

 should be so regarded." 10 



Red top (Agrostis alba) is especially valuable for moist lands 

 sown in mixtures with other grasses. It is slow in starting growth 

 in spring and does not reach full development when other grasses 

 in the mixture are ready to be cut, but it produces leaves and stems 

 late in the fall and makes a good second growth for pasture. It 

 produces an abundance of pasturage on suitable soils, and makes 

 a fairly palatable hay of fine stems and numerous leaves, although 



9 "Feeds- and Feeding," p. 167. 



10 Henry, loc. cit., p. 166. 



