i66 



THE HAY GRASSES 



Habits of Growth. The erectness of the plant is one 

 of its strong characteristics and one of the reasons for the 

 good quality of its hay. It seldom lodges, and if carried 

 down by a severe storm, it soon regains its erect position. 

 The plant usually grows three to four feet in height, and in 

 a fertile soil it may reach the height of five feet. The root 



growth is strong and vigorous and 



makes a firm sod, especially when 

 mixed with blue grass. The sod 

 rots readily and the root growth is 

 thus converted into humus. Timothy 

 exerts a heavy draft upon the soil 

 without returning any fertility to 

 the land except that portion retained 

 in the root growth. 



KENTUCKY BLUE GRASS 



Kentucky blue grass, or June grass, 

 is the best pasture grass of the United 

 States, and is used extensively over 

 a large area of the country. Like 

 all of our native grasses it is perennial 

 in character. When a field is once 

 seeded to blue grass a permanent 

 pasture may be retained for many 

 years without reseeding. 

 Sowing the Seed. Blue grass is usually sown with 

 timothy or some other erect grass when the plan is to cut 

 it for hay. If seeded alone, it usually bends over and lies 

 so closely to the ground that it is hard to mow and to 

 handle after being cut. When it is grown in combination 

 with other grasses it is kept erect and the ripening is so 



Fig- 93- Kentucky blue 

 grass. 



