PREPARATION OF THE SOIL AND SEEDING. 245 



Lbs.i 



Perennial rye-grass 5 



Blue grass 3 



Orchard grass 3 



Meadow fescue - 3 



Meadow foxtail 3 



Red clover.. 2 



White clover..- 1 



Alsike clover... 1 



For the lighter soils of the North and East, they suggest the 

 following : 



Lbs. 

 Timothy 5 



Taller oat grass.. 10 



Rhode Island bent.. . ,. 4 



Lbs. 



White clover.. 1 



Red clover... 3 



Alsike clover 1 



Orchard grass 3 



For wet soils in the North, they suggest : 



Lbs. 



Blue grass 5 



Red-to^ 5 



Fowl meadow grass 4 



Lbs. 

 Rye or Ray-grass 4 



Alsike clover 1 



White clover... 1 



Sowing the Seed. The usual practice in many portions of 

 the Northern States is to sow the seeds of the grasses in early 

 autumn with a crop of winter wheat or rye, or to sow after these 

 crops have been growing for a few weeks. 



The clovers are sown in early spring, because the young plants 

 are likely to winter kill if seeds are sown in autumn. 



The following is from Professor E. M. Shelton, of Kansas: 

 " The time to sow grass seed is, we believe, without any excep- 

 tion, in the spring ; and recent experiments show that this work 

 should not be undertaken too early in the season. In the spring 

 of 1880, a field seeded early in April came to nothing, the violent 

 dry winds that followed the sowing completely sweeping the seed 

 away. Seed sowed after the spring rains have fairly set in, has 

 never failed since 1874 to give a good stand of grass. In a few 

 instances, and where the winter following has proved warm and 

 open, we have had good success with Timothy and clover sowed 

 in the fall ; but the result of sowing orchard grass, alfalfa, and 

 blue grass in the fall, has been almost invariably disastrous. 

 Our experience with grass seeds sown in the fall has been this: 



