322 GRASS MIXTURES SEEDS AND SEEDING 



and sheep fescue are all sometimes recommended, but little used in 

 the United States. The rye-grasses are extensively used in Europe, 

 but it is doubtful if they have a place in permanent pasture mixtures 

 in America. 



Natural Pastures. While there are no available data on the 

 subject, it is safe to say that most of the blue-grass pasture has never 

 been sown as such. The wild blue-grass has simply spread by 

 natural means, and taken possession of the land. The same is true 

 of Canadian blue-grass, redtop, and white clover, in regions where 

 these plants are indigenous. 



In fact, one test of the permanent pasture value of a grass is to 

 note whether the grass runs wild and if it is persistent enough to 

 run out other vegetation. If it is not capable of this in the region, 

 the plant can scarcely be considered as suited to the hard usage of 

 permanent pasture. 



Grass Seeds. There is very little difficulty experienced in secur- 

 ing reasonably good seed of most standard forage crops. In fact, one 

 of the reasons they are standard crops is because these crops produce 

 good seed cheaply. The most notable exception is blue-grass, which 

 is often not only low in vitality but often high in inert matter, mostly 

 chaff, which is difficult to separate out. Orchard-grass is also often 

 high in inert matter. The points to be observed in judging the 

 quality of seeds may be classed as inert matter, dead seeds, and 

 weed seeds. 



Inert Matter. Grass seeds are usually more or less firmly 

 enclosed in the glumes, and in threshing may be only partly or not at 

 all freed from glumes. This makes the seeds very light in weight, 

 so that small pieces of stem or leaves of about the same size can not 

 be readily separated in the cleaning machinery. 



This is illustrated well by redtop, which is often sold " in the 

 chaff " or may be recleaned practically free from the chaff. In the 

 chaff a stroked bushel will weigh about fourteen pounds, but re- 

 cleaned seed will weigh from thirty to forty pounds. A bushel of 

 redtop seed may weigh anywhere from fourteen to forty pounds, 

 depending on the per cent of chaff present, or seeds that have been 

 freed from chaff. The legal weight and average variation in weight 

 are shown in the following table : 



