ORCHARD-GRASS, OAT-GRASS, BROME-GRASSES 187 



grass, 4 pounds of alsike clover. The tall meadow oat- 

 grass matures with the orchard-grass, and at this time a 

 satisfactory growth of the alsike clover has also been made. 

 On much of the area south of the Potomac and Ohio 

 rivers, this mixture yields much more satisfactory crops 

 than timothy and red clover. 



Another mixture commonly used is orchard-grass and 

 red clover, which is very satisfactory wherever red clover 

 succeeds well. In this mixture, orchard-grass is sown at 

 the usual rate and about 10 pounds of red clover used to 

 the acre. This mixture is often used where the orchard- 

 grass is grown mainly for seed, as the clover interferes but 

 little with the harvesting of the seed crop, and adds greatly 

 to the subsequent crop of hay or pasturage. 



193. Pasturage value. Orchard-grass should be a 

 constituent of pastures wherever this grass will grow. 

 Especially is this true on account of its ability to grow in 

 cool weather, as it will furnish the earliest and latest 

 pasturage in the season. Furthermore, it succeeds best 

 under heavy grazing, and produces a continuous succession 

 of 3 r oung leaves. The most serious objection to it as a 

 pasture grass is that, during unfavorable soil conditions, 

 the plants are apt to be pulled out of the ground by pastur- 

 ing animals. Where it forms only a portion of the pasture 

 mixture, however, there is but little difficulty from this 

 source. 



Cattle graze upon it quite as readily as upon timothy, 

 but prefer Kentucky blue-grass to both. 



194. Feed value. No American feeding experiments 

 with orchard-grass hay have been reported. Judged 

 wholly by its chemical analysis and digestibility, orchard- 

 grass should be considerably more nutritious than timothy 

 hay, and many farmers consider that this is the case 



