TALL OAT GRASS. 39 



quickness of growth and its earliness and lateness. 

 I tave sown the Oat grass on wheat in the fall, made 

 a good crop of wheat, and late in the fall have mown 

 a fair crop of hay from the same land. Orchard 

 grass always takes two years to make a full crop, 

 while Oat grass sown in the fall on good land will 

 make a crop of hay the next summer. It has also 

 the advantage over orchard grass in deeding. It 

 may be sown either in ttie spring or fall, while or- 

 chard grass in this climate must always be sown in 

 the spring." 



I think the fall is the best time to sow the Oat grass 

 but it can be sown either in the spring or fall, with 

 almost a certainty of getting a set, as it very rarely 

 fails. Notwithstanding these two advantages over 

 sthe orchard grass, it is not as valuable a grass, it 

 mever forms as thick and compact a sod as orchard 

 ;grass. It is more liable to injury from drought. It 

 must never be lelt one day after it blooms, if you 

 want first class hay, and a rain will injure the looks 

 ■of Oat grass three times as much as it will injure 

 orchard grass or timothy. If, however, it is cut and 

 handled right, it makes beautiful hay. If cut early 

 ;and the summer is not an excessively dry one it will 

 ihead twice in the same summer. I consider the Oat 

 .grass a more valuable grass than timothy, as it 

 is, not nearly as exhaustive to the soil and if properly 

 ^handled will make as good hay and twice as much 



<of it 



In reply to enquiries Mr. T. B. Baker, Thorndale, 



■Chester Co., Pa., writes me, March, 1875: "In the 



spring of 1863, on two acres of good ground I sowed 



four bushels of Oat grass seed and mixed with usual 



quantity of barley and both drilled with the ordinary 



