44 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



Prof. J. B. Killibrew declares that in Tennessee "It will 

 grow upon every soil and give more general satisfaction 

 than any other grass. It is scattered over the whole state 

 of Tennessee. The writer has seen it growing vigorously 

 on the highest mountains of east Tennessee as well as in 

 the deepest valleys, on the sandstone soil of the Cumber- 

 land table land and on the cherty soils of the highland 

 rim. It sparkles in the beauty of its verdure on the lime- 

 stone soils of the central basin and acquires its largest 

 growth in the sandy river and creek basins of west Ten- 

 nessee. There is no place in Tennessee in which it does 

 not prove a profitable grass to the farmers." 



Redtop will grow as far south as New Orleans and in 

 north Louisiana is sometimes sown for pasture and hay; 

 it will yield well on the moist bottoms throughout all 

 the South. While it makes good grazing it is not so nu- 

 tritious nor so well liked as bluegrass. It is, however, 

 much more adaptable to soils and climates than bluegrass. 

 It contains more protein than timothy. Animals com- 

 monly prefer timothy and . farmers prefer it because it 

 yields more. Redtop, they say, is a good grass when one 

 is not ready to get a better one. It has the widest range 

 of any grass in America, from the gulf to the northern 

 limits of agriculture in Canada, from the Atlantic Sea- 

 board (where because of lime shortage in the soil it is 

 common) to the high meadows <and parks of the western 

 mountains. 



To oust redtorj and get timothy or bluegrass instead, 

 one has but to drain, cure the acidity of the land, and 

 make it fertile. Ordinarily the use of 2 to 8 tons to the 

 acre of finely-ground raw limestone or 2 to 3 tors of air- 



