56 GRASSES AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



west. It generally grows in good form on tlie humus 

 soils of the prairie, on upland loams and even on stiff 

 clays. But to grow the crop at its best in reclaimed 

 swamps it is necessary that the soil shall be muck rather 

 than peat. In the latter, if unreduced, it will not make 

 much growth, even though sufficient moisture should be 

 present. In river bottoms it is necessary that the soils, 

 if sandy, shall contain at least a fair proportion of 

 loam. In the volcanic ash soils of the western moun- 

 tain states, it would seem to be specially necessary that 

 ample moisture shall be present. In the humus soils of 

 the prairie sufficient clay is requisite to keep them from 

 lifting with the wind. Upland loams require at least a 

 fair amount of fertility, and stiff clays enough of humus 

 to prevent them from impacting and baking in a degree 

 seriously harmful to growth. The valley lands of the 

 east and the west, all across the northern half of the 

 continent, have specially high adaptation for timothy, 

 but nowhere probably higher than on river bottoms and 

 reclaimed lands beside the Pacific and the Atlantic. On 

 the foothills of the Alleghanies and of the Eockies it 

 grows well, a fact in a considerable degree accounted for 

 by the seepage from the mountains, which keeps the 

 ground moist. The return from certain of the humus 

 soils of the prairie is frequently disappointing, but this 

 arises probably more from a lack of moisture than a lack 

 of plant food in the soil. It would probably be correct to 

 say that the black soils of the prairie, so light that the 

 winds will sometimes carry them, are not really good 

 timothy soils. 



Dry, sandy soils and soils low in fertility are ill 



