B. P. I.— 23 



KENTUCKY BLUEGRASS SEED: HARVESTING, CURING, 



AND CLEANING. 



INTRODUCTION. a 



Among pasture grasses there are none that take higher rank than 

 the bluegrasses. Scattered throughout the north temperate portions 

 of the globe, the various species afford, often in great abundance, 

 natural pasturage of the best quality. This is nowhere more the case 

 than in the United States, where a single species, the Kentucky blue- 

 grass (Poa pratensis) , has made famous one of the most beautiful and 

 richest regions of this country. 



DISTRIBUTION OF KENTUCKY BLUEGRASS. 



This species is distributed almost throughout North America and is 

 common in the Northeastern and Middle States, but reaches its best 

 development in the rolling country of Kentucky, Missouri, and Iowa. 

 The bluegrass region of Kentucky consists of gently rolling lime- 

 stone slopes, with every uncultivated rise and hollow covered with a 

 carpet of bluegrass, green in spring and fall and in earty summer 

 changing to great brown billows of the grass in seed. 



From Kentucky the bluegrass was carried to Missouri and to Iowa, 

 where it is now so well established that it lies at the foundation of the 

 extensive and growing stock-raising industry. The story of how the 

 bluegrass was brought to Iowa is told in Wallace's Farmer, and is 

 worth quoting as part of the history of American agriculture. Mr. 

 Wallace says: 



When we first came to Winterset in 1877 we noticed that the bluegrass was spread- 

 ing from that town westward, the first seed having been brought to that region many 

 years before by a traveler from Kentucky, who adopted the unique method of paying 

 his expenses by giving bluegrass seed to the settlers. 



QUALITY OF SEED REQUIRED BY THE FOREIGN TRADE. 



It is t\ ell known to the trade that poor seed can not be sold to the 

 European buyers. The foreign market demands not only heavy seed, 

 but seed that will germinate well, and in many of the dealings between 

 American and European firms bluegrass seed is sold at a price pro- 



a The authors desire to express their thanks for the many favors and opportunities 

 for study offered by the growers and cleaners of Kentucky bluegrass seed in and 

 about Lexington, Winchester, and Paris, Ky., and also for the help and suggestions 

 afforded by Professor Scovell, director of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, and Professor Garman, entomologist and botanist. 



