98 FORAGE PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE 



considered good should reach at least 1.5 tons an acre 

 and to be large 2 to 2.5 tons an acre. With heavy fer- 

 tilizing yields of 5 to 6 tons an acre or even more have 

 been secured. As a rule, the timothy region has ample 

 rainfall ; so that the principal factor in limiting the hay 

 yield is the fertility of the land. 



While larger hay yields can be obtained by the use of 

 heavy applications of fertilizers, the practice of selling 

 hay as a money crop has almost universally been con- 

 demned by agricultural writers because a bulky crop con- 

 tains so much nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which 

 is usually considered as selling that much of the fertility 

 of the land. This conclusion is, however, based more on 

 theoretical considerations than on any adequate basis 

 of empirical data. 



The results of the long-continued rotation experiments 

 at the Ohio Experiment Station show that the residues 

 of fertilizers from the cereal crops will give as a rule a 

 good increase in the crops of both clover and timothy, as 

 compared to unfertilized plots. 



From the results secured with fertilizers applied to 

 grasses it is an open question whether it would not be 

 more profitable to apply the fertilizers to this crop than 

 to the hoed or small grain crops. Lyon and Morgan in 

 discussing .this problem advance the following reasons 

 why it would apparently be better to apply the fertilizers 

 to the hay crop in New York : 



" (1) Fertilizers applied to grass increase not only the 

 growth of that part of the crop cut for hay, but also the 

 roots and sod which are plowed under the soil and in de- 

 composing add to the soil productiveness. It seems, there- 

 fore, that anything that aids the growth of timothy would 

 help the grain, while the reverse is not true in the same sense. 



