GRASSES IN UTAH 405 



free to say, however, that in my opinion we would make a very 

 serious mistake, on our irrigated lands, if we confined ourselves to 

 one or two grasses. For our benchlands under irrigation I would 

 recommend the following mixture : Kentucky blue grass, 6 pounds ; 

 meadow fescue, 3 pounds; perennial ryegrass, 7 pounds; red clover, 

 2 pounds ; redtop, 6 pounds ; orchard grass, 3 pounds ; white clover, 

 2 pounds; lucern, 2 pounds. This mixture is used on our experi- 

 ment station pasture. 



For light sandy soil under irrigation I would use the following 

 mixture : Kentucky bluegrass, 8 pounds ; meadow fescue, 16 pounds ; 

 tall meadow oatgrass, 5 pounds ; Bromus inermis, 5 pounds ; white 

 clover, 2 pounds. For our low moist lands we have found the 

 following mixture gives excellent results : Perennial ryegrass, 8 

 pounds; redtop, 10 pounds; Rhode Island bed grass, 4 pounds; 

 meadow fescue, 2 pounds ; timothy, 2 pounds ; alsike clover, 5 

 pounds ; white clover, 2 pounds. 



Of course for meadow the crop mainly grown here is timothy 

 and clover. Hay from meadows of this kind sells at from $10 

 to $12 per ton, while alfalfa in good condition sells at $5 to $6 

 per ton. I think this is a mistake, but it is the practice here. I much 

 prefer a ton of alfalfa for feed to any of the domestic animals to 

 a ton of timothy or redtop. A number of our farmers make a prac- 

 tice of seeding orchard grass with alfalfa, since orchard grass 

 matures about at the same time, and it is claimed that because 

 it dries so readily it absorbs part of the moisture from the alfalfa 

 and enables them to put it into mounds greener than if the alfalfa 

 is sown alone. We have found it a very desirable practice to cover 

 our pastures with well-rotted barnyard manure at the rate of about 

 15 tons per acre once in three years. The manuring is done during 

 the winter season, and in the spring a sharptoothed harrow is run 

 over the ground two or three times, scratching the surface very 

 thoroughly. 



We find it necessary about once in three years to resced, and 

 this is done after the harrowing, and just before the spring rair;s 

 begin. Our alfalfa fields can be renewed and kept in splendid con- 

 dition by the use of the disk harrow. The field is thoroughly 

 disked and cross-disked along in February or March, and the prac- 

 tice of disking again after the removal of the first crop is gaining 

 many advocates. During the past few years there has been intro- 

 duced in this state a pest to the alfalfa crop, the alfalfa weevil. 



