﻿28 BULLETIN 4, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



When this plant is at its maximum producing capacity timothy is 

 just beginning to grow vigorously, and no flower stalks are produced 

 until the blue grass begins to mature its seeds. Not until timothy 

 has produced most of its flower stalks, after which it is not eaten 

 with as much gusto as earlier in the season, does redtop come into 

 evidence. It grows late and remains palatable until about the close 

 of the mountain grazing season. 



In addition, some species produce a good forage crop much sooner 

 after seeding than others and live much longer. Timothy, for ex- 

 ample, usually produces a fair forage crop the second year follow- 

 ing seeding, and yields maximum crops up to about 6 years of age, 

 after which its forage production usually decreases year after year. 1 

 Redtop, on the other hand, does not usually yield good returns until 

 the fourth year after seeding, but when once established it is there 

 to stay and may be depended upon to continue to produce good crops 

 if growth conditions are satisfactory. True, in sowing to a mixture 

 it is possible and entirely probable that the species to which the con- 

 ditions are best suited may readily predominate and supplant the 

 others, but in some habitats there is such a balance between species 

 that none is forced out until age intervenes. Again, the ability of 

 certain species to withstand adverse winter conditions is variable and 

 one grass may be entirely killed out, possibly by somewhat unusual 

 conditions, while the vitality of another may not be affected in the 

 least. ThuSj in artificial reseeding, time may often be saved and 

 additional forage produced by mixture sowing. 



In order that the reader may compare the cost of some of the most 

 promising species used, both when sown pure and in mixtures of 

 various proportions, the following summarized table is presented. 

 Timothy, Kentucky blue grass, and redtop were used in these experi- 

 ments, the cost of the seed being $5, $10, and $15 per hundred pounds, 

 respectively. No cost of transportation is included. The costs of 

 scattering the seed and of a given soil treatment were practically the 

 same throughout. 



1 Records show tbat in a few cases timothy has yielded good returns for 10 consecutive 

 years. 



