8 ' BULLETIISr 397, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGKICULTUKE. 



GETTING A SOD. 



Very little bluegrass has been sown in any of this region except in 

 central Kentucky, where pastures are often plowed and the field 

 cropped for a few years. The customary procedure is to clear addi- 

 tions to the pasture fields and allow the bluegrass to come in itself. 

 (Fig. 9.) It usually takes three or four years by this method to get 

 a fairly good stand of grass. If this is grazed properly, the quality of 



Fig. 7.— Silos used for feeding steers during the winter. Silage is being used more generally for this 

 purpose, because more steers can be kept with the same yield of com ensiled than if fed dry. 



the sod will gradually improve for many years. Where the land is 

 level enough to plow and prepare a seed bed, it is possible to permit 

 much more grazing the first two or three years and to get a permanent 

 sod more quickly by seeding a mixture of grasses, such as orchard 

 grass, redtop, red or alsike clover, tall oat-grass, and timothy, along 

 with the bluegrass. Bluegrass and white clover will eventually crowd 

 out most of the other grasses, although orchard grass will persist for 

 many years, thereby adding to the early spring and late fall grazing. 



