354 



THE PRINCIPAL CULTIVATED GRASSES 



very rapidly by means of rhi- 

 zomes. It is considered prac- 

 tically a permanent grass. A 

 good blue-grass sod continues 

 to improve for many years, and 

 if given fair treatment, appar- 

 ently never deteriorates. 



Kentucky blue^grass grows 

 very slowly at first, and, even 

 when sown thickly, requires 

 two to three years to make a 

 good sod. In pasture mixtures, 

 usually it takes four or five 

 years before blue-grass is dom- 

 inant. Blue-grass is so persistent 

 that it will drive out every other 

 grass in the course of time. 



Blue-grass is very seldom 

 cut for hay. It is not a heavy 

 yielder of forage, either in hay 

 or pasture, but its other merits 

 offset its low yield to such an 

 extent that it is the most 

 popular pasture grass in the 

 United States. 



Seeds and Seeding. Most 

 of our popular forage grasses 

 are characterized by abundant 

 production of seed of good 

 quality. In this respect blue- 

 grass is an exception, as the 

 seed is always rather high 

 priced, and not of very good 

 quality. Commercial seed will 

 usually not germinate above fifty or sixty per cent, and considerable 

 amount of seed on the market will not show above ten to twenty 

 per cent germination. For this reason great care should be exercised 



FIG. 158. Kentucky blue-grass on left and 

 Canadian blue-grass on right. Note the 

 crooked stem and smaller head in Canadian 

 blue-grass. 



