REDTOP AND ORCHARD-GRASS 1 57 



blooming period is over. When cut during or just 

 after bloom it makes hay of superior quality, but if 

 left a week or ten days later it makes very poor hay. 

 This is more or less true of all our farm grasses, but 

 it seems to be more pronounced in the case of orchard- 

 grass than most others. The author has fed orchard- 

 gfrass hay extensively to horses and cattle with excel- 

 lent results, but it must be cut as stated above or stock 

 do not eat it readily. It is not always possible to cut 

 hay at the proper time ; other farm work may be 

 pressing, or unfavorable weather may delay haying. 

 It is therefore safer, when pra(5ticable, to grow a grass 

 like timothy, which does not have to be cut so promptly, 

 though even timothy should be cut before the seed is 

 ripe to secure hay of the best quality. Another reason 

 why farmers do not like to grow much orchard-grass 

 is that timothy is the standard hay in all city markets, 

 and even better hay than timothy will usually sell at a 

 lower price because horsemen know what timothy hay 

 is and are not familiar witb orchard-grass hay. How 

 the two would stand in the favor of feeders if both 

 were equally known has never been determined. Ex- 

 perimenters have very generally recommended orchard- 

 grass very highly. The fadt that, in adlual farm 

 pra<5lice, orchard-grass hay would be cut at all stages 

 from blooming to maturity of the seed, would un- 

 doubtedly make the quality of the hay very irregular, 

 and thus render it unpopular. 



The uneven characfter of orchard-g^ass sod, as seen 

 in Fig. 32, also tends to render it unpopular with 

 farmers. It is no small task to ride a mower over an 

 orchard-grass meadow. The small tussocks which 



