MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



445 



the country is grown. Generally speaking, how- 

 ever, red-top is considered a weed, and its presence 

 in hay on the markets results in a lower grade for 

 the hay. At the same time, it is more nutritious 

 than timothy and is said to be especially desirable 

 for horses when they can be taught to eat it 

 readily. 



Red-top is especially valuable in low, moist to 

 swampy places, and may be used on such areas in 

 meadows and pastures. It will endure flooding for a 

 considerable time. It is suggested, also, that it does 

 best on acid soils. It is not adapted to quick rota- 

 tions, as it does not become well established under 

 two years. It has creeping stolons, and makes a 

 good bottom grass. When used with bunch grasses 

 it fills in the open spaces and makes a good sod. In 

 the South it makes a fair growth through the 

 winter, if the weather is not too severe, and in the 

 spring grows rapidly. 



The quantity of red-top seed used in mixtures 

 with other grasses varies widely, from perhaps one 

 pound of recleaned seed to eighteen or twenty 

 pounds. The recleaned seed is the most satisfactory, 

 as less of it is required. It does well with timothy, 

 orchard-grass and alsike clover. Twelve to fifteen 

 pounds of recleaned seed are ordinarily sufficient 

 for a good stand. It is also much used in lawn 

 mixtures in the north Atlantic states. Ordinarily, 

 the seed on the market contains a large amount of 

 chaff, and in order to get the same result it re- 

 quires three or four times as much of this as of 

 recleaned seed. The weight of the market seed 

 varies with its purity, but ten to twelve pounds 

 per bushel is a fair average. The recleaned seed 

 weighs about thirty-five pounds. The seeding is 

 made in the spring generally, although it may be 

 in the fall with timothy. 



Alsike clover (Fig. 335) is rather generally used 

 in small quantity in the meadow mixture and its 

 use is becoming more prevalent than formerly. 

 This clover succeeds well on land where red clover 

 formerly succeeded, but now fails. Heretofore 

 about two pounds of alsike have been used in the 

 mixture in place of four pounds of red clover, but 

 in recent years the quantity of alsike has been in- 

 creased. In middle Tennessee and in western Ore- 

 gon, alsike is rapidly replacing red clover entirely, 

 because of the prevalence of- diseases to which red 

 clover is subject and alsike is not. [See Clover.'] 



Pastures in the timothy region. 



Timothy and clover meadows are more or less 

 generally used for pasture purposes throughout 

 the timothy region. The aftermath is very fre- 

 quently pastured after hay is cut, and it is a com- 

 mon practice to use the meadow exclusively for 

 pasture after the first or second year. The only 

 other pasture grass of great importance in this 

 section is blue-grass (Pigs. 549-551), more com- 

 monly known in the southern parts of its territory 

 as Kentucky blue-grass and in the northern parts 

 as June-grass (Poa pratensis). In the quality of 

 the forage it furnishes, blue-grass is hardly sur- 

 passed by any other grass in this country. In 

 yield, however, it is inferior to many other grasses. 



It furnishes most abundant feed from early spring 

 to early summer and again in the fall after the 

 heat of summer is past. In some sections blue- 

 grass invades meadow lands and becomes well estab- 

 lished by the time the clover begins to disappear, 

 which is usually in two years. This is especially 

 true on soils to which blue-grass is particularly 

 partial. In other sections blue-grass is added to 

 the meadow land at the time the clover is sown 

 and becomes established within two or three years. 

 Ordinarily this grass is very slow to start and in 

 some sections farmers, particularly those whose 

 principal business is the production of beef cattle, 

 are loath to plow up a good blue-grass pasture 

 because of the difficulty of starting it again. Blue- 

 grass is usually sown in the spring. The quantity 

 of seed varies greatly because of the difference in 

 quality as it is found on the markets. Twenty- five 

 pounds per acre of the best quality is sufficient for 

 a good stand, although it would require seventy-five 

 pounds of much of the seed on the market. 



Mixtures of other grasses than those here dis- 

 cussed are so rarely met with in the timothy region 

 that they cannot be considered within the space 

 available for this article. A few other grasses, 

 however, deserve brief mention. 



Position of other grasses and clovers in the timothy 

 region. 



Orchard-grass (Fig. 544) is of importance in only 

 a few sections which lie on the margin of the tim- 

 othy region. An exception consists of two or three 

 counties in Kentucky, below Cincinnati on the Ohio 

 river, and one county opposite in Indiana. Most of 

 the orchard-grass seed of the country is grown 

 here. [Bulletin No. 100, Bureau of Plant Indus- 

 try, entitled "Orchard Grass."] In some parts 

 of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, northern 

 Arkansas, southern Missouri and eastern Kansas, 

 orchard-grass is grown considerably both for hay 

 and for pasture. It is usually seeded in the spring 

 on well-prepared land with or without clover. 

 Twelve to twenty-five pounds of seed are used per 

 acre, according to the quality of the seed and the 

 condition of the seed-bed. With goed seed and a 

 well-prepared bed twelve pounds makes a very 

 satisfactory stand, especially for seed-growing. 



Orchard-grass has two serious faults. In the 

 first place, it grows in bunches and makes a very 

 rough sod. In the second place, it must be cut very 

 promptly at blossoming time or within a few days 

 thereafter, in order to make a good quality of hay. 



Brome grass (Bromus inermis). Figs. 557, 672. 

 This grass will be more particularly mentioned in 

 dealing with the Plains region. Because of its larger 

 yield of forage and its excellent quality this grass 

 deserves more attention, especially as a pasture 

 grass, than it has formerly received in the north- 

 eastern quarter of the United States. [See page 

 452.] 



Fowl meadow-grass {Poa trijlora, Gelib.; P. sero- 

 tina, Ehrh.). Fig 552. This is an important grass 

 on wet lands in some parts of New England and 

 is frequently recommended for wet lands through- 

 out the timothy region, though it has made no 



