28 FARM PRACTICE WITH FORAGE CROPS IN OREGON, ETC. 



kinds of stock ; makes a good quality of hay ; and, when once estab- 

 lished, stands tramping and grazing well. It does not begin to 

 grow so earh 7 in the spring as orchard grass, but remains green 

 during the summer and makes a good growth during the fall. It is 

 especially adapted to a place in meadow and pasture mixtures that 

 are to occupy the land for a number of years. One of the leading 

 dairymen of the Willamette Valley sows the following mixture in 

 the spring : Meadow fescue, 10 pounds ; English rye-grass, 10 pounds ; 

 timothy, 4 pounds ; red clover, 4 pounds, and alsike clover, 2 pounds. 

 This mixture is used for hay for two years, and then for pasture 

 three years. Of the grasses in this mixture, meadow fescue is his 

 favorite. 



Meadow fescue may be sown in the early fall or spring. When 

 sown alone, from 15 to 20 pounds per acre of the best seed should be 

 used. If the quality of the seed is doubtful, sow more. Kansas 

 farmers who grow their own seed sow only 12 to 15 pounds per acre. 



VELVET GRASS. 



The only part of the United States in which velvet grass occurs to an extent 

 worthy of notice is on the Pacific coast west of the Cascade Mountains, from 

 northern California to the Canadian line. In that section it is indifferently 

 called velvet grass and mesquite. The latter name should never be applied to 

 this grass, as it is used for several other very different grasses in the Southwest. 



It is generally regarded as a pest on the Pacific coast, particularly on lauds 

 that are very wet in winter and very dry in summer. This is especially the 

 case with both sandy and peaty soils on the coast. It is not utilized for feed 

 in many localities, but on the extensive areas of sandy land around the mouth 

 of the Columbia River and at one or two points inland it is the chief reliance, 

 both for hay and pasture. It yields ordinarily about half a ton of hay per acre. 

 The hay is remarkable for its lightness, a ton of it being much more bulky 

 than a like weight of other kinds of hay. Horses nearly starve before they 

 acquire a taste for velvet grass, but when the taste is once acquired they thrive 

 upon it remarkably well, showing that it is highly nutritious. The whole plant 

 is covered by a growth of wool-like hairs, from which fact the name is derived. 

 It is unworthy of attention except on the classes of soils above mentioned. On 

 these soils it drives out all other grasses. a 



Velvet grass {Holcus lanatas) is frequently a pest in meadows. 

 The seed matures very early, is light, and shatters readily. When 

 clover, rye-grass, and timothy are ready to cut for hay the seed of 

 velvet grass is usually mature enough to germinate. The wind blows 

 the seed, and wherever the hay is hauled or handled the seed is scat- 

 tered. If a meadow that is infested with velvet grass is cut a little 

 early for either hay or ensilage, the seed can not be spread in this 

 way. Velvet grass gives no trouble in the second crop of clover. 

 Fence rows and waste places beside meadows should be mown earl} 



a W. J. Spillman, in " Farm Grasses of the United States." 



94 



