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Good Year to Start Pastures—Seed Quality Fine 
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ORCHARD GRASS 
A very hardy, tall, leafy grass. Popular for pasturing. Grow* 
well most anywhere. On any type of soil. Forms large cir¬ 
cular bunches of grass. Is one of the earliest spring grasses 
—and lasts well into the fall. For hay, it should be cut just 
when it has come into bloom. At that time, its hay quality 
seems to be best, and the yield greatest. For hay, the quantity 
of seed used per acre should be increased, to make a thicker 
stand and finer stems. Is often sown alone, but when sown 
along with Tall Meadow Oat Grass and Meadow Fescue, the 
quality of Orchard for hay seems to improve. 
In pasture mixtures, Orchard Grass is nearly always ad¬ 
visable in liberal proportions. Its tough, lasting qualities, its 
hardiness, its suitability to most any soil or climate have 
helped to make it among the highest-ranking grasses. 
SMOOTH BROME GRASS 
Not widely known in the East, but very popular in certain 
sections. In Michigan it is used widely in combination with 
alfalfa for pasture. Especially through the heat and drought 
of July and August. When established, this combination 
does away with the need for the seedings of summer annuals. 
Brome grass has been used further West for years. But its 
use with alfalfa is spreading. And Eastern folks might well 
give it trial in a small way. Up-to-date, 3-year records on 
file here on milk-production and butter-fat production, favor 
the combination. The mixture of Brome-Alfalfa showed to 
be somewhat more productive, and definitely more enduring 
as good pasture than straight alfalfa. When supplemented 
by grain, the mixture produced as high-quality nutrients as 
did straight alfalfa. 
Folks interested in this new combination might write the 
Agricultural Experiment Station, East Lansing, Michigan, 
for Bulletin No. 159, "A Mixture of Alfalfa and Smooth 
Brome Grass for Pasture.” 
Good grass eases a farmer's 
work. Once he has a thrifty 
stand of grass established, he 
can turn his live stock out to 
do the work of harvesting a 
crop for him. 
Smooth Brome Grass thick 
ened while blue stem grasses 
were thinned by drought. A 
thin spot in the pasture field 
was plowed up and seeded 
to brome in 1938. In June, 
1939, a heavy hay crop was 
taken from it. . . . Perhaps 
the most widely used plan is 
to sow brome with alfalfa 
There's real value to such a 
stand of grass. ... It was 3 
years old when this photo 
was taken on the farm of a 
Lebanon County (Pa.) Hofi 
man customer. 
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