20 



coast froui Louisiana to Florida. It is not often successful ou tlie yellow 

 or red clay uplands, but is very promisino- on the strong lime soils, even 

 where the rotten limestone rock comes within a few inches of the surface. 

 Alfalfa is often grown ou lands which are seeded to Johnson grass, 

 and in such fields the yield of hay is very large, from 3 to 5 tons per acre 

 of very fine (luality. Such fields make very satisfactory and profitable 

 meadows for a few years; but as the Johnson grass needs an occasional 



plowing, which can not be 

 given without killing the 

 alfalfa, the latter must be 

 resoW'U each time the laud 

 is plowed. 



BERMUDA GRASS. 



lu the region in question 

 no grass is used more 

 largely for hay than Ber- 

 nuula (fig. 3). After a 

 meadow has been in this 

 grass some years the sod 

 becomes so matted with 

 roots that the growtli is 

 lessened, and it should be 

 idowed or cut n'ith a disk 

 harrow, in order to give the 

 grass a fresh start. If 

 plowed in the fall, after the 

 last cutting has been made, 

 the field should be sown 

 with oats, vetches, or a 

 mixture of the two. As 

 the sod is very tough, it 

 should be thoroughly har- 

 rowed both before and after 

 the seed is sown, and, if 

 l)ossible, finished with a 

 roller, so as to leave the 

 surface smooth for the 

 mowing machine. The oat and vetch crop will make a. heavy yield of 

 very snperior hay in May, and by October the Hermnda will fully 

 occu])y the ground and yield a heavy cutting. As the grass rarely 

 matures seed in this country, the manure made from feeding it may be 

 used without danger of spreading the grass where it is not wanted. 

 Ked clover is often sown where the land is first set with Bernuula, and 

 although it does not usually make a heavy growth and becomes very 

 scattering after the first two or three years, it very materially incieases 

 the yield of hay, wliicli i« superior in (juality toeitlier Bermuda or clover. 



Flo. ^.—Bernuula frrass (Oiinutlon (larhilon). 



