1 68 FAKM GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



or nia3' not be true, but it shows that grass problems 

 are not pressing in that sedtion. Yet it is probabl}- 

 true that brome-grass would add much to the produc- 

 tiveness of pastures, even in Ohio. J. E. ^^'ing, the 

 well-known agricultural writer and ledlurer, whose 

 farm is in west central Ohio, says that a mixture of 

 brome-grass and alfalfa will carry six times as much 

 stock there as blue-grass, and do it better. Yet both 

 of these crops are, or were until very recentl5', nearly 

 unkno'WTi in that State. Alfalfa is now rapidly gain- 

 ing favor throughout the timothy region, and it is 

 probable that brome-gjrass will, in titae, do the same 

 over much of this region. 



It has been stated on a pre\-ious page that palata- 

 bility is perhaps the most important single charadler- 

 istic of a grass. If stock like it sufl&cientlj' well to eat 

 enough to fatten on, it deser\-es attention. It is not 

 claimed that brome-grass is as palatable as blue-grass, 

 but the former is eaten readily bj' all classes of stock, 

 and its superior produdtiveness would render it more 

 profitable than blue-grass in all sedlions except those 

 where blue-grass is at its best, such as the Blue- 

 Grass Region of Kentucky, north Missouri, and south- 

 western Iowa . Since brome-grass is more a pasture than 

 a hay grass, and as the farmers of the eastern part 

 of the timothy region are gradually abandoning the 

 use of pastures in favor of more productive methods of 

 raising feed, it is doubtful if brome-grass has an im- 

 portant place to fill in that sedlion. But farther west, 

 where beef production renders pastures necessary, it 

 would undoubtedly add to the profit of the fanner. 



Brome-grass was at first heralded as a great hay- 



