36 FORAGE CROPS IN" NEBRASKA. 



mon bluegrass of the New England and Northeastern States, and in 

 some localities is called wire grass and also English bluegrass. It is 

 adapted to somewhat more sterile soil than Kentucky bluegrass, but 

 on the whole is scarcely to be recommended for Nebraska. The 

 station trial of this grass was unsatisfactory. 



R,EDTOP. 



Redtop {Agrostis alba and A. vulgaris) is a native of Europe and 

 also of the northern parts of North America. In the Eastern States, 

 especially from Pennsylvania southward, this grass is more commonly 

 known as herd's grass. Redtop is widely cultivated and is now found 

 growing wild through all the region indicated for timothy. Like 

 bluegrass and white clover, it is now a common constituent of meadows 

 and pastures even where it was not sown. It is particularly adapted 

 to moist soils and is always recommended as a constituent of meadows 

 or pastures on low ground. It is, however, inferior in quality to the 

 other grasses mentioned, and also on ordinary dry ground it is inferior 

 to them in quantity. It is to be recommended for moist meadows in 

 the eastern part of the State and also for those localities in the sand- 

 hills and other portions of western Nebraska where the soil is too 

 moist for the growth of ordinary meadow grasses. 



As the seed obtained in the market usually contains a large amount 

 of chaff it is necessary to sow a correspondingly large quantity of seed. 

 A half bushel of clean seed per acre is probably sufficient, but it may 

 be necessary to increase this to 2 bushels if the seed is chaffy. When 

 sown in mixtures, as is usually the case, a much less quantity may be 

 used. A common mixture is 3 pounds of alsike clover, 1 pounds of 

 timothy, and 4 pounds of redtop. Botanically there is a slight differ- 

 ence between Agrostis alba and A. vulgaris, but the seed upon the 

 market may be of either variety. A variety known as creeping bent 

 (A. stolonifera, of the seed catalogues) is often used as a lawn grass in 

 the Eastern States. A related species, Rhode Island bent (A. canina), 

 is also used as a lawn grass, but in Nebraska both these grasses are 

 inferior to bluegrass for this purpose. 



Redtop has been grown upon the Nebraska Station farm for several 

 years and has been found to be entirely adapted to this region. 



Side-oats Grama. 



The first seeding of side-oats grama (Bouteloua cicrtipendula), also 

 called prairie oats and tall grama, was made in 1897. It gave the 

 same year a yield of hay amounting to nearly two tons per acre, and 

 the following year the product was nearly four tons per acre. The 

 grass was partially killed during the unprecedentedly cold winter of 

 1899. Being a native, it is not injured by ordinarily cold weather. 

 Seed sown in 1900 produced a good stand the first year but no crop. 



