BLUE-GRASSES 159 



disappears. Blue-grass sown in this way adds a little 

 bottom grass to the hay crop of timothy and clover. 



The amount of seed to use per acre, if sown alone, is 

 not very definite, due partly to the small extent to which 

 this grass is sown and partly to its very uncertain quality. 

 Werner recommends 20 pounds per acre ; Stebler and 

 Schroter 17| pounds ; Spillman 25 to 30 pounds. Hunt 

 says 40 pounds is the usual rate, but that half this amount 

 of good seed would probably suffice. On lawns, much 

 greater quantities are desirable, four bushels being the 

 rate commonly advised. 



148. Fertilizers. Blue-grass yields so little, even at its 

 maximum, that but few fertilizer experiments have been 

 conducted on pastures or meadows. Where it is grown 

 on lawns, however, abundant experience shows that 

 blue-grass responds markedly to lime and to nitrogen 

 fertilizers. 



At the Massachusetts Experiment Station Kentucky 

 blue-grass top-dressed annually for 5 years with nitrate of 

 soda was found to be much subject to rust and otherwise 

 unsatisfactory. Another plot top-dressed with potash 

 salts and basic slag meal in addition to nitrate of soda 

 produced far heavier and more satisfactory crops. 



As shown in the accompanying table, the largest in- 

 creases were secured by the use of heavy applications of 

 manure, or practically the same by using a complete ferti- 

 lizer. Nitrate of soda alone had but little effect, and this 

 also true of muriate of potash. Acid phosphate alone gave 

 the best results of any single fertilizing element. The 

 results of the three combined apparently increased the 

 effectiveness of each. Apparently the most far-reaching 

 tests of fertilizers to determine the effect on yield of hay 

 are those of Morrow and Hunt. 



