MEADOW PLANTS 43 



are getting started. The term nurse-crop is applied to 

 any quick-growing crop that supposedly protects another 

 crop while it is young. Wheat sown in the fall produces a 

 crop the following summer, and the timothy and clover 

 have a better start than if sown after the wheat is cut. 

 However, in most cases if the timothy and clover are sown 

 together in the fall on well-prepared land, no time is lost, 

 for a full hay crop will be produced the following year. 



If well seeded down timothy will produce crops for 

 several years, but experience has shown that the best 

 results are obtained by making the meadow a part of a 

 rotation. On good, arable land, with suitable application 

 of fertilizer, a timothy and clover meadow will yield heavy 

 crops the first and second crop-year. After this the 

 amount of the crop decreases. Hence it is more profitable 

 to plow up and plant to another crop such as corn, some- 

 times with an intervening year devoted to pasture. 



48. Redtop. — On lands where timothy is at its best, 

 there is no competing meadow-grass; but, on soil too 

 moist for the best results with timothy, which is often 

 also acid soil, redtop is the most satisfactory meadow- 

 grass. The region where redtop is most extensively grown 

 is the Atlantic slope from New England to Maryland, 

 although it is also grown to a limited extent throughout 

 the timothy region. It can also be grown to advantage 

 somewhat farther south than can timothy. 



49. Johnson-grass is an excellent meadow-grass for 

 the states from Georgia to Texas. It yields large crops of 

 nutritious and palatable hay and can be grown easily 

 and cheaply. On the other hand it is a very aggressive 

 species, propagating readily by seed and by strong under- 

 ground creeping stems or rootstocks. When once in pos- 

 session of a field it is difficult to eradicate. For this reason. 



