3i'6 FIELD CROPS 



seriously injured for hay production by pasturing, this grass 

 is often used for pasture purposes. It is rather a common 

 practice to cut hay from a timothy and clover meadow for 

 one or two seasons and then to pasture it for a year or more 

 before breaking up the sod to plant some annual crop. 

 While more pasturage could be obtained from any one of 

 several other crops, this practice is a convenient one and 

 probably will continue to prevail. Where it is the intention 

 to use the meadow land as pasture for a year or more, it is 

 well to add small quantities of seed of some of the more 

 permanent pasture plants, such as Kentucky blue grass, 

 brome grass, and white clover. These will not make enough 

 growth to be very noticeable in the hay during the first year 

 or two, but they will become firmly established by the time 

 it is desired to use the land as pasture, and will furnish better 

 and more permanent pasture than timothy and clover with- 

 out them. 



393. Harvesting the Seed Crop. As timothy usually 

 makes but little second growth, it is necessary to use the 

 first crop of the season as the seed crop. It is allowed to 

 ripen and is cut with the grain binder, shocked, and handled 

 in every way similar to a grain crop. The usual yield is 

 from 3 to 5 bushels of seed to the acre. Timothy which is 

 grown for seed should be free from weeds and from mixtures 

 of other grasses. The price of the seed varies somewhat 

 from season to season, but it is almost" always possible to 

 sow an acre of timothy at less cost than an acre of any other 

 grass. This is probably the chief reason that timothy is 

 so generally sown. 



KENTUCKY BLUE GRASS 



394. Origin and Description. Kentucky blue grass, Poa 

 pratensis, is either a native of the United States from Pennsyl- 



