150 FARM GRASSES OP THE UNITED STATES 



and red top is justly accorded a liigh. place in the favor 

 of stockmen. Timothy may be started in the same 

 way on meadows that are not too wet. There are also 

 extensive areas of rich overflowed lands in all the tim- 

 othy-growing States on which redtop, mixed with 

 alsike clover and fowl-meadow grass {^Poa, seroHna), is 

 the best and most available grass. 



In the New England States redtop regularly con- 

 stitutes a part of the mixture for meadows and pas- 

 tures. In the replies to a circular letter asking for the 

 constituents of the usual grass mixtures, redtop was 

 mentioned oftener than timothy in Massachusetts, Con- 

 nedlicut, and Rhode Island. In Maine, timothy led in 

 the ratio of 33 to 27 ; in New Hampshire the ratio 

 was 32 to 22, and in Vermont, 36 to 10. In the replies 

 from Alabama and Georgia, redtop was mentioned 

 twice as often as timothy, while in Tennessee and 

 North Carolina these two grasses divided honors about 

 equally. In the great hay-producing States of the 

 Middle West, timothy was mentioned from 4 to 20 

 times as often as redtop. The popularity of redtop in 

 New England is probably due to two causes : First, 

 the area of wet meadow-land is proportionately larger 

 there than it is in the States farther west and south; 

 secondly, the agricultural societies of New England 

 have long been established, and have had a marked in- 

 fluence on agricultural pradlice. Through these socie- 

 ties the farmers have been more or less imbued with 

 the ideas that pervade English agricultural writings. 

 In English literature and in the minds of English 

 farmers the idea of grass mixtures, of ' ' top ' ' and 

 ' ' bottom ' ' grasses, is thoroughly grounded. The Eng- 



