486 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 20 
SOME NEW GRASSES ARE WANTED. 
MUST BE BETTER “RUSTLERS” TUAN CLOVER OR TIMOTHY 
As There Anything Better Than Corn? 
The Question. 
A few years since, I seeded some land with a mixture of prass 
seed, very highly commended as one sure to produce a much 
larger crop of hay than the then common one of Timothy and 
clover. It contained one kind of Fescue, which with the Red 
clover added by me as directed, were the only seeds that germin¬ 
ated. After the clover died out, the Fescue continued to occupy 
the ground in hummock-like bunches, and appeared to be remark¬ 
ably drought-resisting by reason of its long and numerous roots. 
While it grew coarse from the absence of other grasses, it made 
hay that stock ate readily, though I do not think its feeding value 
was very great. In view of the fact that the continued series of 
dry seasons sometimes play havoc with the hay crop in this 
locality—the present season being a marked example, when half 
a crop with immediate rains is all that is hoped for, and every 
succeeding day of evaporating heat is rapidly lessening even that 
estimate, when there is no clover on account of the severe winter 
and May freeze, which destroyed the growth of what escaped the 
winter, and because clover and Timothy are practically all the 
grasses used for hay—it seems to me important that farmers use 
some drought-resisting kinds of grasses for hay, if such can be 
obtained readily. Not a mixture at a high price, of which but one 
sort will grow, as in my case, but good, sound seed, with no fancy 
price attached. 
Not knowing what kinds should be selected, I wish to ask what 
kinds of grass seeds, and in what proportion, will be the best for 
a hay crop, when the lack of moisture cuts Timothy down one-half 
or more. Just how should they be sown (separately or in mix¬ 
ture), and when? Also, where can reliable seed at reasonable 
prices, be had ? From what I saw of the Fescue, before 1 plowed 
it under, I think that, with a companion grass or grasses to fill 
the spaces, and equally drought-resisting, two tons to the acre in 
such a season as this, would be assured, while Timothy will cut 
from next to nothing up to half a ton. Hay has advanced lately 
$5 to $6 per ton, and the prospect is that thousands of tons will 
have to be shipped here the coming fall or winter from Western 
points. It is not a pleasant prospect in that particular. Crimson 
clover can cut no figure here till some one has shown that it will 
endure our winter seasons. So far, the showing is all the other way. 
Green County, Wis. w. 
The Answers. 
Nothing Better Than Millet and Corn. 
W. reports a sad condition of affairs which now pre¬ 
vail over a large area in the southern part of this 
State. Timothy has given less than half a cron, and 
in many places about Madison, our farmers are now 
cutting the oats hoping to get a little hay therefrom. 
If we have rain very soon, we shall have a large corn 
crop, as corn has stood the drought remarkably well 
to date ; but from this time on, every day reduces the 
possibilities. 
When W. asks for a grass that will stand freezing 
and drought better than Red clover and TimothjL he 
is searching in vain, I fear. At this station we have 
sown hundreds of dollars worth of grass seed of the 
various varieties under the most varying conditions, 
and thus far have found little of value to report. Or¬ 
chard grass thrives and is fully as hardy as Timothy, 
but it must be cut very early, and even then does not 
make very good hay. Meadow fescue stands quite 
well and, under favorable conditions, yields a fair 
crop. We must not rely on these grasses, however, 
excepting to fill in between others. Tall Oat grass is 
very hardy, but has suffered this dry year just as 
much as Timothy, and I do not believe it makes a good 
hay as the stems seem quite pithy. 
I do not think there is any perennial grass that will 
yield a good crop under very unfavorable conditions 
which have prevailed with us this season. We might 
expect that such a grass would have been developed 
by Nature in the arid districts or semi-arid regions of 
the West; but we know that the grasses that there 
abound, grow only in tufts or tussocks, and do not 
form a sod such as we require for our meadows and 
pastures. Indian corn and Millet are the two grasses 
which will best stand drought ; there is yet time for 
our correspondent to sow Millet. w. A. henry. 
Wisconsin Experiment Station. 
An Awful Season On Clover. 
Orchard grass, Daetylis glomerata, is the best 
drought-resisting perennial grass in my observation, 
which has other desirable qualities. It has faults, 
such as gro ving in bunches, and being rather coarse- 
strawed and not of the highest palatability ; but its 
early and vigorous growth in spring, the rapidity of its 
growth after being mowed or grazed, and its remark¬ 
able ability to withstand drought, are strong points 
in its favor. In times of great drought, I have noticed 
it almost or quite keeping pace with Red clover in 
growth, when Timothy and Blue grass were, appar¬ 
ently, dead. I have been disappointed in the yield of 
hay, but this is fair and, if the grass is cut fairly 
early, the hay is of creditable quality. This grass 
seeds abundantly, and I have never had the seed 
fail to grow. It seems to me a better grass to sow 
with others, or with Red clover, than sown alone. 
It matures about with Red clover, but continues to 
grow until late in the season. Wherever clover can 
be grown, it will be found superior to almost any 
grass in withstanding drought. Throughout much 
of the West, there has been unusual difficulty in get¬ 
ting satisfactory stands of clover for two or three 
years past. I do not remember a year in which I 
have seen so few good fields of clover as this. In 
central Illinois, we are having a remarkably severe 
drought for so early in the season. I am daily sur¬ 
prised and gratified at the great ability of our best 
big grass—Indian corn—to grow in soil that seems 
destitute of moisture. g. e. morrow. 
Champaign, Ill. 
The Native Grasses of Kansas 
We have tested a large number of grasses and other 
forage plants during the last five or six years, in the 
hope of finding something that can withstand dxought. 
Like W., and, perhaps, even more than he, the farm¬ 
ers of Kansas feel the need of some forage plant that 
can withstand the drought which visits this State 
nearly every year. I regret to say that we have so 
far found nothing that will grow and yield pasture or 
hay under these severe periodical trials better than 
our native prairie grasses. These grasses are coarse, 
not very palatable, and scanty enough in dry seasons; 
but nevertheless, none of the so-called tame grasses 
is equal to them as drought resisters. In favorable 
seasons with an average rainfall (which is 30 inches 
for this region of the State), moderately well distrib¬ 
uted, Red clover and several tame grasses do well, and 
are to be preferred to the prairie grasses, because, 
under these conditions, they yield better and are more 
nutritious; but with a protracted period of hot winds 
and no rain, these grasses are worth nothing, and they 
are frequently killed out completely, while the native 
grasses, at least, have the advantage of being able to 
start again when rain comes. The highly prized Ken¬ 
tucky Blue grass is worth nothing here during most 
seasons, from the beginning of June to the end of 
September. Orchard grass, when once established, is 
more tenacious. Though stunted by two or three 
months of dry weather, it is not killed out so readily 
as Blue grass, and will usually start again when rain 
comes. Orchard grass and Medium clover have been 
I WAS BORN IN AN INCUBATOR, AND CAN STAY OUT AS 
LATE AS I PLEASE ! From Harper’s Bazar. Fig. 153. 
our most reliable combination, both for hay and past¬ 
ure, the clover filling out the open spaces between the 
bunches of Orchard grass The so-called English Blue 
grass or Meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis) has been 
tried here, also, along with many others. It yields 
somewhat less feed than Orchard grass, but seems to 
survive a period of drought almost as well. 
For some time we entertained great hopes of the 
Smooth Brome grass (Bromus inermis) as it has been 
recommended by some of the Government experiment¬ 
ers ; but it has never given satisfaction here at the 
college. "When we are fortunate enough to get a 
stand of this grass, which is rare, although we pay 
advanced prices for “ tested ” seeds, the yield of feed 
is but light, scarcely equal to the native prairies. 
Timothy is a failure here, and, therefore, rarely 
grown in this region of the State or westward. 
From the behavior of the Flat Pea (Lathyrus syl- 
vestris) for a year past, I entertain some hope of its 
usefulness when once thoroughly established. It 
seems to live through excessive drought and extreme 
cold without any marked loss of vitality ; but it will 
be yet many years before it can be of much practical 
value. The seed is scarce and costly, and germinates 
rather poorly, which is enough to discourage the avei - - 
age farmer from attempting its culture. Nothing yet 
has been discovex-ed in the line of grasses which, with 
the treatment given pasture land in the East, can be 
depended upon here in the West to furnish satisfac¬ 
tory pastui-e and meadow land ; and I do not believe 
that we shall find any more drought-resisting grasses 
than those on native prairies. It might be a wise 
policy to give our attention to the preservation of 
these, rather than to continue the well nigh hopeless 
search for some more di-ought-resisting grasses, suit¬ 
able for permanent pasture. It becomes, also, more 
and more apparent that, for hay, we must depend 
more on cultivated crops with drought-resisting quali¬ 
ties and short periods of growth, like sorghum and 
soy beans, rather than on the time-honored meadow 
grasses of eastern longitudes. c. e. georgeson. 
Kansas Experiment Station. 
Conditions of Success; a New Grass. 
Here in Tompkins County, N. Y., it has been dry, 
frosty and cold during the greater part of the season. 
Timothy and other grasses will produce less than 
half a crop compared with last year. Notwithstand¬ 
ing the unfavorable season, under certain conditions 
the yield of hay has been satisfactory. Our foreman 
finished drawing the hay from a field containing 14.8 
acres, to-day. It was nicely cured and weighed 38.69 
tons, or 2.6 tons per acre. It is probable that it will 
shrink from 5 to 10 per cent by parting with moisture 
in the mow. A small meadow which has been in 
grass undisturbed for several years, has just been 
cut. The yield will be about one-half ton per acre 
of inferior hay, which had to be secured to keep it 
from going back into the ground. This is only a 
sample of thousands of acres here in central New 
York. Only occasionally is found a good grass on 
clover fields. A lesson should be learned from this, 
for it is only what happens every dry spring. 
What are the chief factors of success and partial 
failure in the two cases? The success was due in 
the first instance, partly to the use of mixed seeds, 
Red and Alsike clover and Timothy having been 
sowed in about equal quantities. If some Tall Meadow 
fescue had been added, without doubt the yield 
would have been increased. While the Timothy had 
not reached its full growth when cut, yet it was far 
enough advanced to make good hay. It helped to 
hold up the clovers, but did not, as I believe, reduce 
the yield of them. If so, it was an extra gain. On 
the other hand, the clover pai*tially shaded the 
ground and the Timothy in the early spring, thereby 
mitigating the effects of the drought. Thick, but 
not too thick, seeding was also a factor. The plants 
were all young, which had a most beneficial effect on 
results. Again, the plants did not make a heavy de¬ 
mand on the soil for nitrogen, the one plant food 
which is almost always deficient in meadows of more 
than one or two years’ standing. 
The field upon which the clover grew was naturally 
poor. It has been under a four-year rotation for the 
last 20 years—corn, oats, wheat, clover and Timothy. 
Barn manures at the rate of from 10 to 15 tons in the 
earlier years, and from 5 to 10 tons in the later, per 
acre, have been applied on the clover stubbles in the 
winter, preparatory to the corn crop, and on the oat 
stubbles after plowing preparatory to the wheat 
crop ; this secured a light dressing of manure every 
second year. The wheat on the field refei’red to, last 
year was estimated at 30 bushels per acre. But little 
commercial fertilizer has ever been used. It is evi¬ 
dent that a fairly libei’al amount of plant food 
was present during the growth of the wheat. The 
success of the large crop in spite of the frosts and dry 
weather, was due to the presence in the soil of a fair 
amount of available plant food, mixed seeds, young 
plants, appropriate number of plants and good physi¬ 
cal conditions of the land before and at the time of 
wheat seeding. 
The want of success in the small meadow was due in 
part to lack of available plant food, especially nitro¬ 
gen, to old, worn-out plants, to the presence of 
Blue grass and other undesirable meadow plants, to 
lack of sufficient number of plants in places, and 
especially to the lack of the tap-rooted host plants, 
the clovers ; together with a lack of shade in early 
spi-ing by the broad-leaved clovers. The remedy is 
clear—destroy the old plants and substitute young, 
mixed and more suitable ones, and furnish them with 
food sufficient to produce early growth and shade, 
that they may successfully resist temporary hardships 
later. 
As yet, I have not spoken of a new grass, or com¬ 
paratively new to this country, Festuca elatior, Tall 
Meadow fescue, introduced from Europe. Several 
of the Festueas ax’e natives of North America : Fes¬ 
tuca microstachys, annual; Festuca subulata, per¬ 
ennial ; Festuca viridula, perennial, all are found on 
the Pacific coast. Festuca elatior is now found through¬ 
out central New York on the roadsides in gi-eat abund¬ 
ance, and also in some other States. It is prolific in 
lower leaves and seed, and withstands the vicissitudes 
of heat and cold, drought and moisture better than 
any of the common cultivated grasses. The newcomer 
has also spread into many meadows and pastures, 
especially in low and damp parts, but it is able to 
maintain a good degi-ee of growth on dry and poor 
upland. Without doubt, it is a far better grass than 
Timothy or Blue grass for many localities. After ob¬ 
serving its behavior, no one can hesitate to give it a 
most careful trial in pastures and meadows. The ques¬ 
tion might be asked, Will it give a good yield the 
first year if sowed with clovers? Probably not, if 
sowed in the spring; but if in early fall in the wheat 
or rye, the clovers being sown the following spring, 
the growth will likely be satisfactory, although it is 
likely that the second year will show better results 
than the first. It appears eminently adapted to 
grow' with the clovers. They lack leaves at the bot- 
