150 FARM GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 
and redtop is justly accorded a high place in the favor 
of stockmen. Timothy may be started in the same 
way on meadows that are not too wet. There are also 
extensive areas of rich overflowed lands in all the tim- 
othy-growing States on which redtop, mixed with 
alsike clover and fowl-meadow grass (Poa serotina), is 
the best and most available grass. 
In the New England States redtop regularly con- 
stitutes a part of the mixture for meadows and pas- 
tures. In the replies to a circular letter asking for the 
constituents of the usual grass mixtures, redtop was 
mentioned oftener than timothy in Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut, and Rhode Island. In Maine, timothy led in 
the ratio of 33 to 27; in New Hampshire the ratio 
was 32 to 22, and in Vermont, 36to10. Inthe replies 
from Alabama and Georgia, redtop was mentioned 
twice as often as timothy, while in Tennessee and 
North Carolina these two grasses divided honors about 
equally. In the great hay-producing States of the 
Middle West, timothy was mentioned from 4 to 20 
times as often as redtop. The popularity of redtop in 
New England is probably due to two causes: First, 
the area of wet meadow-land is proportionately larger 
there than it is in the States farther west and south; 
secondly, the agriculfural societies of New England 
have long been established, and have had a marked in- 
fluence on agricultural practice. Through these socie- 
ties the farmers have been more or less imbued with 
the ideas that pervade English agricultural writings. 
In English literature and in the minds of English 
farmers the idea of grass mixtures, of ‘‘top’’ and 
‘‘bottom ’’ grasses, is thoroughly grounded. The Eng- 
