GRASSES IN WISCONSIN 407 



early part of the season. Timothy is grown quite exclusively along 

 the streams close to the mountains in both the eastern and western 

 part of our state. This grass is used very largely for hay. In 

 Kittitas Valley irrigated land is largely used for this purpose. With 

 easy transportation to a good market like Seattle the better farmers 

 in Kittitas Valley are able to> secure some seasons nearly $100 an 

 acre gross receipts from their timothy hay. It is grown to some 

 extent in western Washington, though certain other grasses are 

 grown in western Washington more proportionately than in like 

 latitude in any other part of the United States. 



For pasture, our best grass is orchard grass, which is grown prin- 

 cipally in the western part of the state, but it is being mixed with 

 alfalfa by a few farmers in our irrigated belt in order to overcome 

 the danger of bloat in live stock when used for pasture. 



Italian and English ryegrasses are grown to a considerable extent 

 in western Washington for pasture purposes, but are of no value 

 in any other part of the state. Tall oatgrass has been found to do 

 fairly well in the lighter lands of western Washington, but it 

 matures too early to make a good hay plant in that section because 

 the rains are so frequent up to July that hay harvest is very 

 uncertain. 



WISCONSIN. Prof. A. L. Stone of the Department of Agronomy, 

 Wisconsin College of Agriculture, Madison: There are only three 

 or four grasses of real importance in Wisconsin. We have a large 

 number of grasses, both cultivated and native, and many are valu- 

 able agriculturally. But for pastures and meadows there are but 

 three or four which are in common use. We consider Kentucky 

 bluegrass by far the best grass which we have for pasture. While 

 it does not equal some other grasses, like brome or meadow 

 fescue, for instance, in yields, it proves to be the best pasture grass 

 for all conditions. In our best pasture we have a mixture of Ken- 

 tucky bluegrass and white and alsike clovers, using but a very little 

 however, of the alsike. On our lower soils we use some Kentucky 

 bluegrass, a larger amount of redtop, white and alsike clovers. 

 We find that the redtop gives better satisfaction on the low soil than 

 the Kentucky bluegrass, though a mixture of the two gives very 

 good satisfaction. 



In the order of their merit, I should say that the four best grasses 

 would be Kentucky bluegrass, redtop, brome grass and either 



