TWO VALUABLE FESCUES 53 



farm. One should buy brome grass seed from a repu- 

 table seedsman who knows its source. It has been re- 

 ported that brome grass is hard to get out of land. We 

 have not found this true, but when planted to corn the 

 grass is readily subdued and does not return. I would 

 not sow brome grass for meadow alone where timothy 

 succeeds well nor in the South where it has never suc- 

 ceeded except in the higher altitudes. Along the west- 

 ern edge of the timothy belt, brome grass is well worthy 

 of trial. It shares with meadow fescue the esteem of 

 experimenters in Kansas and Nebraska. It is preemi- 

 nently a pasture grass. 



Meadow Fescue and Tall Fescue^, (Festuca pratensis 

 F. elatior), It is curious the way American farmers 

 follow closely in one another's footsteps and imitate one 

 another's farm practices. This is illustrated well in the 

 case of the fescues. They are admirable grasses, more 

 nutritious and palatable than timothy, larger yielding 

 than Kentucky bluegrass, far better from the viewpoint 

 of the animals than orchard grass or redtop, yet one can 

 travel very far and see not one field of meadow fescue. 

 I once rode more than half way across Ohio by automo- 

 bile and scanned closely the wayside fields to see what 

 was growing within. I saw abundant fields of timothy, 

 many fields of red clover, a few of alfalfa, much blue- 

 grass of two sorts, a few bits of orchard grass, more of 

 redtop and not one of meadow fescue. It was not be- 

 cause the grass was not adapted to the soil, because along 

 the roadsides it had come of its own accord, curiously 

 enough, and oftentimes was displacing bluegrass. Prob- 

 ably the reason why farmers do not sow more fescues is 



