SEEDING BLUEGRASS 85 



if the lawn can have partial shade, if it has a rich soil 

 supplied with enough lime, bluegrass will thrive. South 

 of this state the summer suns seem too hot and Bermuda 

 grass is better. 



Disadvantages of Bluegrass. It spreads rapidly and 

 crowds out timothy, clovers and alfalfa. It is a little 

 hard in wet seasons to eradicate from plowed fields, 

 though this is not serious. It grows in the moist weather 

 of spring and crowds out better drouth-resistant grasses. 

 This is especially true in the western prairie states and 

 in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, where it is com- 

 plained that "bluegrass crowds out all other grasses and 

 then dies itself of drouth." 



Seeding Bluegrass. Bluegrass seed is small ; there are 

 about some 2,200,000 seeds in a pound, yet one cannot 

 bank on more than a very small percentage of them germi- 

 nating owing to the difficulty in sowing them to a proper 

 depth, having sufficient moisture and other favorable con- 

 ditions. Hunt says that when 40 pounds are sown on 

 one acre it puts 2,000 seeds to the square foot. I think 

 that bluegrass will lie dormant in the soil for some time, 

 as it often appears almost spontaneously in a meadow of 

 timothy or alfalfa. One can not establish bluegrass ex- 

 cept very early in spring or during cool, moist weather 

 of fall. The seed does not germinate unless during some 

 part of the day the temperature drops to 40. It is 

 cheaper and easier to establish bluegrass by sowing it 

 with other grasses. If the grass is not already found 

 growing wild in that neighborhood it is probably of no 

 use to sow it at all until something has been done to 



