l6 FARM GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



laid down, and the field converted into more or less 

 permanent pasture after one or two years' use as 

 meadow. 



On account of tlie usual low yield of old meadows 

 and most old pastures, progressive farmers maintain 

 that they cannot afford to keep lands permanently in 

 grass. This is particularly the case in sedlions of 

 the country where daifying is the leading feature of 

 fanning, especially where land is high-priced. In 

 fa<5l, there is a tendency in some sedlions to dispense 

 with pastures altogether on dairy farms, except for 

 the young stock, and to substitute the system of 

 green feeding (soiling) instead, because of the greater 

 amount of feed that ma}- be obtained from the same 

 area by this system as compared with pasturing. 

 Whether better results could be obtained from per- 

 manent or semi-permanent grass-lands by using such 

 mixtures as are used in Europe, instead of depending 

 on timothy and clover, as our farmers do, is doubtful, 

 for the most highly prized European grasses do not 

 thrive well in the Eastern sedlion of the United States. 

 The most important grasses of Europe are English and 

 Italian rye-grasses, meadow-fescue, timoth}-, orchard- 

 grass, and meadow-foxtail. Of these, timothy is the 

 only one that can be said to be important in the real 

 grass-growing sedlion of this country. The rye-grasses 

 and meadow-foxtail are entire failures (in our timothy 

 region), and orchard-grass and meadow-fescue (here 

 called English blue-grass) are important only in very 

 restridted areas. 



Much has been written concerning the care of 

 meadows in this country, a good deal of it copied from 



