FORAGE AND SOILING CROPS 93 



thrive in a partial shade, making it especially suitable to sow 

 in orchards and Avoodland pastures. 



Advantages and disadvantages. — It is one of the first grasses 

 to start in the spring, making the earliest pasturage. As it 

 grows older it becomes unpalatable, unless kept closely cropped, 

 and is avoided by the livestock. It also makes a good late fall 

 pasturage. In meadows, after the hay is cut, a considerable 

 growth starts up, making fair pasturage, and in favorable sea- 

 sons a second cutting of hay may be expected. To make good 

 hay of orchard grass it must be cut promptly at blossoming 

 time, for after this period it rapidly becomes woody and unpala- 

 table. It is slow to develop; in mixtures taking two or three 

 years to reach the blooming stage. When once established, it 

 is persistent both in pastures and in meadows, but grows in 

 tufts, producing an uneven sod and making it difficult to cut 

 hay. The seed costs several times as much as timothy, and in 

 most regions the yield of hay is smaller. 



Seed and seeding. — The seed of orchard grass is grown in 

 Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia. An average yield is about twelve 

 bushels per acre. The seed is very chaffy and on the average 

 a bushel weighs only fourteen pounds. When planting for hay, 

 two bushels of seed are used. In mixtures for permanent pas- 

 tures, five pounds are used. The seed is too light and chaffy to 

 feed properly through a drill, consequently the sowing is usually 

 done by hand or with a wheelbarrow seeder or other type of 

 seeder. Fall plantings are not often successful because orchard 

 grass is easily ^\anter-killed unless planted very early. It may 

 be sown in the early spring with a nurse crop or in the winter 

 grain as early as conditions allow. For pasture, it is customary 

 to mix other grasses with orchard grass because it does not 

 make a good sod. Redtop and blue grass are often used. For 

 meadows, clover is commonly mixed with the orchard grass. 



Kentucky blue grass. — This grass, often called June grass, 

 or simply blue grass, is a narrow-leaved, fine-stemmed peren- 

 nial, gromng from a few inches to two feet tall. It spreads 

 slowly by means of fine underground stems and forms an excel- 

 lent sod. 



Value and adaptations. — Kentucky blue grass is the most 

 important pasture grass, and is second to timothy in total value. 

 It forms a permanent sod that, under favorable conditions, does 

 not deteriorate with age. Not only is it one of the earliest 

 grasses to start in the spring, but it gives late fall pasturage. 

 However, during hot, dry summer weather it makes scant 



