286 FIELD CROPS 



general rules will be given here. In mixtures, it is cus- 

 tomary to sow enough of the more important grasses to give 

 a full stand if the less important ones fail. The total quantity 

 of seed in a mixture is usually greater than if any one of the 

 constituents were sown alone. When clover and timothy 

 are sown together, nearly as much seed of each is sown as 

 when either is sown alone. The rate of seeding must be 

 increased on poorly-prepared land, to allow for the consider- 

 able number of seeds that will fail to germinate. When 

 sowing a field that is to be used for the production of seed, 

 less seed is used than when sowing for hay production. More 

 seed is usually sown on wet land than on dry, and on rich 

 land than on poor. 



356. The Important Meadow Plants. The most impor- 

 tant plants in American meadows are timothy and red 

 clover Alfalfa is the great hay plant of the West, and its 

 cultivation is rapidly spreading in all parts of the country. 

 On wet lands, redtop is an important grass, and alsike clover 

 largely replaces red clover. In the South, Johnson grass is 

 the most common hay grass. In the Northwest, brome 

 grass occupies a prominent place. The native meadows of 

 the West are made up of a large number of species of native 

 grasses, among the more important of which are the wheat 

 grasses. A few others are used in a limited way in some 

 sections of the country, but the six or seven plants named 

 above constitute the greater part of the hay which is pro- 

 duced in the United States. These will be discussed at 

 length in the succeeding pages. 



357. The Care of the Meadow. To get the best results 

 from a meadow, something more is necessary than to go out 

 at the proper time and harvest the hay crop. The length 

 of time a field is to remain in meadow influences to some 

 extent the treatment which is given to it. The ordinary 



