BROME-GRASS 169 
producing grass, but it has bee: a disappointment to 
many farmers in this respect. The disappointment 
was due to too great expectations. It does produce a 
fine crop of hay, apparently the equal of timothy, for 
one or two years, but by the third year, except on very 
rich, moist land, it becomes so sod-bound that it sends 
up very few seed-stalks, though it continues indefinitely 
to produce an abundance of short, leafy growth, excel- 
lent for pasture. A few instances are reported in 
which farmers have plowed the sod in the fall and 
harrowed it down smooth, thereby renewing it to full 
vigor as a hay producer. Experience in this line is 
yet too meagre to justify the assertion that this prac- 
tice would be generally successful. It is certainly 
worth trying. 
Brome-grass hay is not yet sufficiently known on 
the markets to enable us to pass final judgment upon 
it. Experiments have demonstrated that it is as nu- 
tritious as timothy, and abundant experience shows it 
to be relished by stock. But the same is true of sev- 
eral other kinds of hay that have little standing on the 
markets. It requires long experience of many feeders 
to settle the status of any kind of hay. The men who 
feed livery horses in the cities are the jury that passes 
final judgment in matters of this kind, and their dic- 
tum furnishes the market rating of all classes of hay. 
When we have learned more about how to grow brome- 
hay, and its true value has been determined by the 
feeder; it may become a standard, particularly in the 
markets of the Northwest. Like timothy, it possesses 
the advantage of producing good seed in abundance. 
The seed is easily harvested, and may be threshed on 
