242 GRASSES AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



wanted. The cutting and curing of the hay may be 

 managed in the same way as the cutting and curing of 

 timothy. (See p. 72.) From 1 to 4 tons are produced 

 per acre. The average is probably about 1^- tons. 



Securing Seed. — This grass is seldom, if ever, grown 

 for seed in the United States, hence the author is unable 

 to state the best method of securing seed based on 

 American experience. According to Beale, it does not 

 readily produce seed until the plants become dwarfed 

 and crowded because of a matted condition of growth 

 or through more or less of impoverishment of the land. 

 It is also quite probable that the tendency in the plants 

 to produce seed is less on the humus soils of the prairie 

 than on soils essentially clay in texture. It is also 

 certain that more or less of the seed matures in the 

 grain crop amid which this grass grows, and in this 

 way aids in the distribution of the same. The capacity 

 of this grass to produce seed under prairie conditions, 

 would seem to have been under-estimated, otherwise 

 there would be no adequate explanation of the abun- 

 dant presence of this grass in the soils of the upper Mis- 

 sissippi basin. If seed crops should be wanted, they 

 can probably be obtained by cutting crops which mature 

 seed with the binder and threshing them as orchard 

 grass is threshed. (See p. 145.) 



Renewing. — ^When quack grass becomes sod-bound to 

 the extent of lessening the grazing furnished by it, it 

 may be renewed by ploughing and then harrowing the 

 land ploughed. The depth to which the land should be 

 ploughed, the best season for doing the work and the 

 frequency with which this should be done depend upon 



