MEADOW FESCUE. 199 



plant. In this respect it will occupy about the same 

 place as Kentucky blue grass, and much that was said 

 about the place which the latter occupies as a rotation 

 plant may apply equally to meadow fescue (see page 

 89). Like all grass plants, it is best sown on clean 

 land, whatever the process may have been that was 

 adopted in cleaning the same, and is followed by crops 

 that feed eagerly on the gathered supplies of available 

 plant food furnished by the grass roots in their decay. 

 These include the small cereal grains, corn, the non- 

 saccharine sorghums and rape. 



Preparing the Soil. — The preparation of the soil for 

 meadow fescue is not different from the preparation of 

 the same for several other grasses that are being dis- 

 cussed. Usually it requires a seed bed, moist and finely 

 pulverized, but there may be instances, as on the light 

 soils of the prairie so light that they lift with the wind, 

 when a rough surface would be preferable to a smooth 

 one. There may be other instances as when the seed is 

 sown in the autumn when a surface to some extent 

 cloddy would be preferable to the same too finely pul- 

 verized; yet again there are instances as when sown in 

 the spring on loam soils in which pulverization cannot 

 be too fine for best results. Unless where the soil runs 

 together in the sense of impacting or washes away, 

 autumn ploughing aids much in securing a fine seed bed 

 in the spring. 



Sowing. — The time or times at which meadow fescue 

 may be best sown will depend much upon the locality. 

 It is hardy, hence at the ISTorth the seasons for sowing it 

 are about the same as for sowing timothy, that is, during 



