CARE OF A MEADOW 267 



cultivation is rapidly spreading in all parts of the country. 

 On wet lands, redtop is an important grass, and alsike clover 

 largely replaces red clover. In the South, Johnson grass is 

 the most common hay grass. In the Northwest, brome 

 grass occupies a prominent place. The native meadows of 

 the West are made up of a large number of species of native 

 grasses, among the more important of which are the wheat 

 grasses. A few others are used in a limited way in some 

 sections of the country, but the six or seven plants named 

 above constitute the greater part of the hay which is pro- 

 duced in the United States. These will be discussed at 

 length in the succeeding pages. 



343. The Care of the Meadow. To get the best results 

 from a meadow, something more is necessary than to go out 

 at the proper time and harvest the hay crop. The length 

 of time a field is to remain in meadow influences to some 

 extent the treatment which is given to it. The ordinary 

 practice in this country, except with alfalfa, is to cut but one 

 or two crops of hay and then break up the sod for some annual 

 crop such as corn, potatoes, or small grain. Often it is 

 pastured for from one to three years and then plowed and 

 planted to some one of these crops. Little attention is given 

 to the maintenance of permanent meadows except on land 

 that is very wet or is otherwise undesirable for cultivation, 

 though in England and some of the other European countries 

 lands are kept continually in grass for many years. 



Attention may well be given to the meadow during 

 the first season in the matter of keeping down weeds and pre- 

 venting them from seeding. Fields that are seeded to grass 

 with a nurse crop in the spring often grow up to ragweed and 

 other pests after the nurse crop is removed. These weeds 

 should be prevented from seeding by going over the field 

 with a mower about the time they begin to bloom, cutting 

 the stubble rather high so as not to expose the roots of the 

 young grass plants to the full glare of the sun's rays. Pas- 



