438 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



needed for pasture. Awnless brome is also doing 

 well where it has been tried, but its use is still in 

 the experimental stage. On average good land, 

 red clover, red-top, timothy and Kentucky blue- 

 grass are probably the least fastidious, orchard- 

 grass and meadow fescue being a little more ex- 

 acting. 



(2) Choose grasses that animals like. If 

 the plats be sown as suggested and ani- 

 mals allowed to graze them, their choice 

 will be apparent. On the Dunkirk ^ 



clay loam soil at Cornell University, ^ 

 Ithaca, New York, dairy cows ^ 



ranked the grasses in the follow- ^ 



ing order: awnless brome, red and 

 alsike clover, meadow fescue and 

 timothy, orchard-grass, Kentucky 

 blue-grass and red-top, the last 

 mentioned grass being shunned 

 wherever it occurred. On the 

 Dunkirk clay in the Genesee val- 

 ley. New York, fattening steers 

 ate Canada blue-grass, Kentucky 

 blue - grass, Danthonia spicata 

 (which is rather prevalent), 

 equally well, while red-top and 

 timothy were left. Horses and 

 sheep are more partial to orchard- 

 grass than are cattle. 



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cies of grasses to secure a continuous "bite" 

 throughout the season, but also because conditions 

 change ; some of the grasses being slow in 

 occupying the land, early - maturing species 

 are sown with them to fill the land and to 

 exclude weeds, thus ensuring larger yields. 

 Some of the grasses should furnish abun- 

 dance of leaves and but few stems, thus 

 giving a close, dense turf ; among such 

 grasses are Kentucky blue-grass, hard 

 fescue and some strains of timothy. 

 Certain grasses are useful because 

 ij[ of their stoloniferous habit of 



growth, which enables them bet- 

 ter to withstand the treading of 

 stock and to live and reproduce 

 below ground. Such plants include 

 Kentucky blue -grass, red -top, 

 white clover and many kinds of 

 timothy. 



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Purchasing seed and sowing. 



Seeds of diiferent species should 

 be purchased separately and sam- 

 ples taken for examination for 

 purity and germinating power. 

 [For advice on seed-testing, see 

 page 140.] The true basis for pur- 

 ^.-^ chasing and sowing seeds is not 

 ^ how many pounds per acre, but how 



many millions of viable seeds should be 

 sown per acre. A pound of timothy seed may 

 contain 1,300,000 seeds; a pound of red-top 

 may contain 6,000,000 seeds; hence, to 

 secure an equal number of plants per 

 acre would require a much less 

 weight of red-top than of timothy. 

 The number of seeds which 

 should be sown per acre depends 

 on the soil, climate, the kind of 

 grass and the object in view. The 

 number of grass plants found on 

 an acre of old meadow in Eng- 

 land was over 78,000,000 when 

 irrigated and about 18,000,000 

 when not irrigated. A common 

 estimate is to sow 20,000,000 via- 

 ble seeds per acre, which is about 

 450 per square foot. For tempo- 

 rary grass-land, where one-third 

 of the seeds are legumes, 8,000,- 

 000 to 10,000,000 seeds is ample 

 in many places. On the Cornell Uni- 

 versity farm' when timothy and clovei 

 are sown to remain one year, it is cus- 

 tomary to sow ten pounds of timothy and 

 ten pounds of red clover per acre, or about 

 13,000,000 timothy seeds and 2,250,000 

 clover seeds, a total of 15,250,000 per acre. 



The land should be well fitted. If weedy, two 

 or three cleaning crops, as corn, potatoes and 

 __ beans, should be taken and the land well 

 ferent species of plants, the yield per acre Fig"666 manured for these crops. Fertilizers and 



is low. In seeding a permanent pasture, center trip hay sling l™e ™^y t>e applied and harrowed in before 

 however, not only do we sow several spe- ana locks. the seed is sown, if found to be desirable. 



Seeding grass-land. 



In seeding temporary grass -land, select 

 seeds of plants which mature quickly ; it is 

 wasteful to sow seeds of Kentucky blue- 

 grass, meadow fescue or meadow fox- ^ 

 tail, since it takes' two or three _^^ 

 years for these plants to attain 

 full growth. Red and alsike clo- 

 vers, timothy, red-top and or- 

 chard-grass suggest themselves as 

 being desirable for this purpose. 

 For permanent grass-land there 

 is a greater variety at our dis- 

 posal. In addition to those already 

 mentioned, alfalfa, meadow fes- 

 cue, meadow foxtail, Kentucky 

 blue-grass, hard fescue, Canada 

 blue-grass ■ and others may be 

 used. 



For a meadow a few kinds of 

 grasses are usually sown, and 

 these are generally the tall, 

 strong-growing species, as timothy, 

 red-top, tall fescue, alsike and red clo- 

 ver. Almost invariably when maximum 

 yields are secured, only one or two spe- 

 cies are grown, it being much easier to 

 furnish the ideal conditions for the best 

 growth of one or two species than it is for 

 twenty species. 



Whenever the herbage of grass - land is 

 diversified, and comprises twenty to forty dif- 



