MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



183 



without a grain crop. In humid regions, good stands 

 are usually secured when seeded with rye or wheat, and 

 fairly good stands with barley, but when seeded with 

 oats, the stand of grass is likely to be poor. This is be- 

 cause the oats take so much water from the soil (page 67), 

 because they shade the ground so much, and because they 

 are cut later in the season. The small grass and clover 

 plants are likely to be smothered out or to be killed by 

 drought. The drier the year or the region, and the poorer 

 the land, the more injury the grain crop does. Some 

 farmers fit the land again and seed after the removal of 

 oats. When seeded with winter wheat or rye, the grass 

 seeds are usually sown in the fall and the clover seeds 

 sown in the spring. 



The grass plants respond to nitrogenous fertilizers. 

 (See Figs. 55 and 56.) Nitrogen promotes vegetative 

 growth; and it is vegetative growth, and not seed, that 



Fio. 90. Timothy hay was cut at the time indicated, cattle were allowed to 

 eat at will. They preferred that which was cut when the seed was just formed. 

 Missouri Experiment Station. 



is wanted for hay. Another reason why the grasses 

 respond to nitrogen is because they grow so early in the 

 spring, before the soil organisms are sufficiently active to 

 supply the nitrogen. Top-dressing of meadows is usually 



