RED TOP. ISS 



this, the mechanical and chemical effects of .red top 

 sod, especially on worn soils, is very helpful. 



The crops which may best be made to follow red top 

 are those which feed ravenously on humus soils, such 

 for instance as com, the non-saccharine sorghums, po- 

 tatoes and rape. But certain of the small cereal grains 

 may also be thus grown with profit. Legumes should 

 only be sown thus when the sod may be so stiff as to' 

 call for reduction before growing on the land such crops 

 as wheat, oats and barley. 



Preparing the Soil. — -The preparation of the soil for 

 red top is much the same as that which fits it for re- 

 ceiving orchard grass. (See p. 138.) But clean culti- 

 vation preceding red top is even more important than 

 the same preceding orchard grass, since it takes longer to 

 become established. When it is to be sown alone, as 

 for the production of seed, it is specially important that 

 it should be sown on clean land, that is on land on 

 which a cultivated crop has been grovm under clean con- 

 ditions. In fact such conditions are the most favorable 

 to its growth in all soils. But on the galled soils of the 

 south it is sometimes sown and top dressed with or 

 without manure, according to the degree of the deple- 

 tion, in order to cover them with a grass sward, which 

 in turn, will form in them the basis of successful crop 

 production. 



Sowing. — Both north and south the seed is sown in 

 the autumn and in the spring. In the south autumn 

 sowing is growing in favor,- since a better stand of the 

 plants is then more uniformly obtained. When a hay 

 crop is wanted the first summer after sowing the seed, or 



