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will be seriously weakened. It is not, therefore, well adapted 

 to grazing, and great precaution should he used in ])astiiring 

 mowings in which timothy is the principal species. 



Redtop. — Redtop, next to timothy, is our hest-known 

 grass. It reaches its most luxuriant development on deep, 

 rich soils, and the best redtop that the author has ever seen 

 in any part of ]\Iassachusetts was produced on the reclaimed 

 salt nuirshes in the town of J\I arshfield. Redtop is a sod- 

 forming grass, l)ut the vigor of its underground stems is 

 considerably less than that of some other species. Close 

 observation has shown that redtop is capable of doing better 

 in soils containing free acid than most other species. Under 

 ordinary conditions it is persistent. It will endure grazing 

 much better than timothy. It starts slowly after having 

 been cut, and usually produces very little rowen. 



RJiode Island Bent and White Bent. — These species are 

 very closely allied to redtop, and have the same general 

 habit of growth. Indeed, it may be doubted whether there 

 is a well-defined dividing line, based upon distinctions of 

 j)ractical importance, between these three species. There 

 are doubtless differences which are sufficiently clear to the 

 botanist ; but it is at any rate true that the product from 

 commercial samples of seed grown in plots side by side is so 

 nearly alike in the case of these three species that so great 

 an authority as Professor Lamson-Seribner, formerly agros- 

 tologist of the Department of Agriculture in Washington, 

 has frankly admitted to the Avriter that he could distinguish 

 no well-defined difference between them. It would seem, 

 therefore, that, as the seed of redtop is more generally kept 

 and better known, it must be unwise to purchase seeds of 

 these other species which are less certain to be of good qual- 

 ity, and which are as a rule sold at higher prices. 



Orchard Grass. — This is one of the best known among 

 the less common grasses. It is a large, coarse species, and 

 is one of the earliest to come into bloom. It has the very 

 bad habit of growing in tufts, and is characterized by the 

 ])roduction of a very heavy growth of foliage starting from 

 the ground, and a relatively light production of stalk and 

 seed. It is called orchard grass, not because it will grow 



