260 TwENTY-FlEST BiBNNIAL RePOBT 



single grasses or legumes, and considering the high 

 prices charged for special mixtures, it is questionable 

 if our farmers gain anything by sowing most of them. 

 Certainly they are m a position to make cheaper and 

 as good mixtures, just as they can make a fertilizer mix- 

 ture better adapted to land, once they know what the 

 soil already contains. 



Theoretically, mixtures should be much superior to 

 single species. A variety of herbage no doubt helps the 

 digestion of stock. Monotony of fare sometimes prevents 

 the best possible results in feeding, even when the fare 

 consists of the best single ingredient it is possible to pro- 

 vide. At least two plants, a grass and a legume, are 

 very desirable; but from our own experience, it seems 

 unlikely that we shall soon secure an elaborate mixture 

 adapted to our conditions. 



The chief difficulty in growing and maintaining mix- 

 tures in Kentucky comes from the aggressive disposition 

 of certain grasses when groAvn in our soil, and their 

 tendency to overshadow and finally suppress those of less 

 persistent and vigorous habit. From experience with 

 plots, I should expect any mixture containing a large per 

 cent, of orchard grass seeds to result finally in a con- 

 tinuous, unmixed growth of orchard grass. Sown with it, 

 perennial rye grass, meadow foxtail (Alopecurus praten- 

 sis), English blue grass, smooth brome grass, timothy, 

 and the clovers have little chance of continuing long, 

 and I have seen seed mixtures produce in a few years as 

 fine a growth of orchard grass as we could hope to get 

 by sowing the pure orchard grass seeds. We have found 

 only a few grasses that hold their own with orchard 

 grass for any length of time. Tall oats grass lasts as long 

 as any of them. Blue grass itself is disposed to give 

 way before it, if the orchard grass is sown with it in 

 any quantity and gets a fair start. 



But blue grass will crowd out and displace many of 

 the introduced grasses, just as orchard grass does. 

 Meadow foxtail, perennial lye grass, timothy, Canada 

 blue grass, red-top, all give ground as it advances, and 

 mixtures containing blue grass, but not orchard grass, 

 and tall oats grass, are very likely in time to result in a 

 continuous growth of Kentucky blue grass. 



