MEADOWS AND PASTURES 23 



greater in the case of such grasses as tall meadow oat- 

 grass, meadow-fescue, Italian rye-grass, and the like, 

 which are so little used in this country. The stock is 

 liable to be old, and such seeds should always be tested 

 before risking good land to them. The same is true 

 of blue-grass, Johnson, and Bermuda grasses, which 

 are especially liable to be of poor quality. 



The rate at which the various grass-seeds are to be 

 sown is given in discussing the individual grasses later 

 in this volume. When mixtures are sown, a number 

 of considerations govern the amount of each kind of 

 seed to use. In sowing grasses and clovers together 

 it is customary to sow enough of both grass-seed and 

 clover-seed for a full stand. But if several grasses 

 are used in the mixture, the amount of each is usually 

 somewhat reduced. In parts of the Timothy Region it 

 is customary to add more or less redtop to the timothy 

 and clover (except when the hay is grown for sale), 

 but the amount of timothy-seed is not thereby reduced. 

 The amount of each kind of seed to be used depends 

 partly on how much of each kind of grass is desired 

 in the hay. Redtop is usually added as a " filler, ' ' to 

 increase the yield, rather than because of its desirabil- 

 ity in the hay, and hence the proportion of its seed is 

 usually small. In the mixture above recommended for 

 uplands in the Middle South, the amount of orchard- 

 grass is about half what would be sown if this were 

 the only grass to be sown with the clovers. The 

 amount of redtop is about one- fourth, and that of tall 

 meadow oat-grass about one-third of a full seeding. 



Some authorities recommend that nearly as much 

 of each kind of seed be used in a mixture as if it were 



