RED TOP. 165 



this grass it will come into land on which it has been 

 previously grown without being sown, where cultivat- 

 ing to produce crops may have ceased, and will in time 

 form pastures as blue grass does. It will also come into 

 pastures in which it has not been sown and add to their 

 productiveness. And yet its eradication to the extent of 

 not being harmful to grain crops is easy. The agi'ess- 

 ive power which thus inheres in red top is not equal 

 to that of blue grass. 



Binding Soils. — In the southern states especially, 

 red top has been found usefvil in binding soils that 

 wash, in making the further gullying of the land to 

 cease, and in filling up gullies that have been made. It 

 is claimed that for such a use no grass will equal it in 

 the South except Bermuda grass. Into the sides of these 

 it sends its long rhizomes which produce fresh plants. 

 In time they cover the bottom of the gully. The plants 

 growing there will catch and hold soil that is being 

 carried down by the water. The process is repeated 

 from year to year until, in time, much of the depression 

 is filled. 



