380 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



bluegrass pastures at the same time. I have been studying the 

 life-history of the timothy plant in connection with our investiga- 

 tions of factors affecting the yield, and found, to my utter aston- 

 ishment, that it is not a perennial, as is popularly supposed. That 

 is to say, when a plant has sprung from the seed it does not 

 have a period of some years of development, which would corre- 

 spond to the youthful or growing period of an animal, and then 

 a period of a few years of maximum efficiency and productive- 

 ness, which would correspond to the period of prime of life of an 

 animal, and then a period of decline and debility, corresponding 

 to the old age period of an animal. On the other hand, plants 

 spring anew each year from the old bulb, and the bulb, after it 

 has produced its new plant, dies. This new plant produces, in 

 addition to its top which we cut for hay, a new bulb to carry 

 the plant over the following winter, and this in turn produces a 

 new plant and dies. So that the timothy plant is an annual in 

 the same sense at least that a potato is an annual. These studies 

 are the very basis of our knowledge of the management of meadows 

 and pastures. To say in a few words what the best grasses and 

 clovers for Missouri are is practically impossible because of 

 the great variation of the soil both physically and chemically. 

 Moreover, Missouri covers a distance of 300 miles from north 

 to south in a portion of the . country where the flora and 

 fauna of the north and south blend. For example, cotton is 

 grown quite extensively in the southern portion of the state 

 and some spring wheat is grown in the extreme western por- 

 tion. Broadly speaking, there is but one hay grass in Missouri, 

 timothy, and but two hay clovers, the common red clover and 

 alfalfa, with a large reliance in the extreme southern portion of 

 the state on the forage plant, the cowpea for hay. Likewise, broadly 

 speaking, there is but one permanent pasture grass for Missouri, 

 and that is Kentucky bluegrass, and but one permanent pasture 

 clover, namely, white clover, which comes into bluegrass pastures 

 without seeding and covers the ground during the resting period 

 of the bluegrass, thereby giving the crop a much higher nutritive 

 value and larger yield. I have divided the state into nine principal 

 groups, as follows: 



1. The loess soil both north and south of the river which is open 

 and friable and does not hold bluegrass well. This land, however 

 is rich in lime and on it timothy thrives; so does red clover and 



