REDTOP AND ORCHARD-GRASS I51 
lish farmer is well established in the belief that a grass 
mixture should consist of tall and short and early 
and late grasses, thereby giving a greater yield and 
greater palatability to the produc&t. This idea has 
probably influenced New England farmers to some ex- 
tent, who grow redtop as a good ‘‘ bottom’’ grass— 
z.e., one which fills the lower part of the swath with 
leaves. 
To illustrate how firmly the idea of mixtures is 
grounded in the minds of English agriculturists the 
following instance may be cited. In a recent report 
from the agricultural department of one of the leading 
English colleges the results of experiments with seven 
mixtures, each consisting of from nine to fifteen kinds 
of seed, arereported. Oneof the mixtures far surpassed 
the others, both in yield and in the quality of the hay, 
and is therefore recommended in the following words: 
‘From the foregoing it is evident that the seeds sown 
on plat 5 have been by far the most suitable for this 
soil lying on the Valley Gravel.’’ Itso happens that 
this plat was the only one on which alfalfa was sown 
in considerable quantity (10 lbs. per acre), and it is 
stated that the product was chiefly alfalfa. It is safe 
to say that a farmer from our own Western States 
would have stated the conclusion differently. He 
would have said : ‘‘ Alfalfa is undoubtedly the best hay 
crop in this test.’’ But it was the mixture of nine 
grasses that was recommended by the experimenter. 
The popularity of redtop in North Carolina, Ten- 
nessee, and the States to the south (where it is fre- 
quently called ‘‘ herd’s-grass’’) is easily understood. 
We are here on the border of the timothy region, or 
