1 70 THE HAY GRASSES 



the state experiment station or to the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. 



Harvesting. Brome grass grows from four to five feet 

 tall and stands erect, so that if desired for seed, it can be 

 cut and bound with a grain harvester. It should stand 

 in the shock until dry and then be stored away in barns 

 like grain or brought direct from the field to the thresher. 

 Like timothy it is threshed readily with a grain thresher. 



Brome grass should be cut for hay when in blossom. It 

 cures well and is handled the same as other hay grasses. 

 Its feeding value compares favorably with that of timothy. 

 After cutting, if moisture is sufficient, it grows up so as to 

 furnish excellent fall pasture. It is not readily injured 

 through pasturing, as it forms a very heavy sod. Brome 

 grass fields are greatly helped by disking deeply after the 

 second crop of hay has been removed. When brome grass 

 is grow r n for hay it is well to grow it in a four-year rotation 

 like timothy, planting corn or some other cultivated crop 

 on the brome grass sod. On account of the numerous 

 rootstocks in the ground it requires a sharp plow and much 

 power to break the sod. Unless the sod is turned com- 

 pletely over the numerous roots are apt to send up new 



shoots. 



ORCHARD GRASS 



Orchard grass is not grown so generally as timothy or 

 blue grass in the United States. It is raised most abun- 

 dantly in the states south of the blue grass and timothy 

 regions. It is also becoming quite extensively grown in the 

 Pacific States. 



Orchard grass grows two to three feet tall and is readily 

 recognized by its smooth stems and by the panicles which 

 consist of one-sided clusters on top of the branching stems. 



