DESCRIPTION OF IMPORTANT GRASS FORAGE PLANTS 137 



form with stoloniferous habit used for lawns and is known as "creeping 

 bent," Agrostis canina, is the Rhode Island Bent cultivated also as a 

 lawn grass. Redtop resembles superficially Kentucky blue grass, but it 

 is distinguished from the latter by the purple color of the panicle and the 

 smaller and more numerous i-flowered spikelets, while the spikelets 

 of Poa pratensis are 3- to 5-flowered. Redtop flowers usually a month to 

 two months later than the Kentucky blue grass. The seeds of redtop 

 have a silvery appearance, one pound consisting of from 4,135,000 (Illi- 

 nois Station) to 6,400,000 (North Carolina Station). 



Sowing. Redtop seed is usually sowed in amounts from 6 to 30 pounds 

 per acre, when sown alone, and 6 to 10 pounds, when sown with timothy, 

 or timothy and red clover. It should be sown about the same time as 

 timothy. Like Kentucky blue grass, it is aggressive and frequently 

 takes full possession of the land. Redtop thrives under a greater range 

 of climate and soil than any other cultivated grass. Its value as a hay 

 crop is next to timothy. It is adapted to low, moist lands and frequently 

 forms one of the stages in the succession of grass herbage on old abandoned 

 wagon tracts across grassland, or the open prairie. It will grow on poor 

 soil, which it gradually improves. 



Yield. The yield of hay ranges from 3,000 to 5,000 pounds per acre. 

 If harvested, when fully mature, it makes a fibrous and unpalatable 

 hay. Analyses show that redtop hay contains more nutrients than 

 timothy hay. 



Orchard Grass (Dactylis glomerata). Another name for this grass in 

 England and New Zealand is cocksfoot. This grass with a bluish-green 

 cast of foliage usually grows in clumps, as a bunch grass with culms 8 

 inches to 2 feet tall and broadly linear leaves. The spikelets are in dense 

 one-sided clusters in close panicles. The spikelets are 2-5 flowered, com- 

 pressed, nearly sessile in dense fascicles. The lemmas are 5-nerved with 

 ciliate keels and are short awned. The palea are shorter than the lemmas. 

 (Fig. 57)- 



Seeding. The commercial seeds are enclosed in the chaff. Orchard 

 grass can be purchased with 100 per cent, purity. The number of seeds 

 per pound may vary from 400,000 to 480,000. When sown alone, 35 

 pounds of seed are used per acre, when intended for hay, and 15 pounds 

 per acre, when intended for seed. It may be seeded either in the fall 

 or very early in the spring, but whenever sown, it rarely gives a hay crop 

 the first year. 



