FIELD CROPS. 437 



jacent plats sown in drills 6 in. apart yielded at the rate of only 318 lbs. per 

 aci'e. 



Notes on work with cotton, crops for forage, green manure and grain, and on 

 horticultural work are given and the sterility of sorghum due to the activities 

 of Diplosis sorghicoJa is described. 



Chang-e of vegetation on the south Texas prairies. O. F. Cook {JJ. 8. Dept. 

 Ayr., Bur. Plant Indus. Circ. 14, Pi). 7). — Attention is called to the fact that 

 regions formerly grassy, open prairies are now covered with a dense growth 

 of niesquite. prickly-pear cactus, and other shrubby plants of intermediate size. 

 The influence of fires on the change of vegetation is discussed. It is stated 

 that mesquite alone works little injury to the grazing industry, but that the 

 huisach (Acacia farncsiana), and smaller shrubs and cacti may become numer- 

 ous enough to kill out the grass and diminish the pasturage rapidly. It is be- 

 lieved that the shrubby vegetation in south Texas will continue to advance and 

 multiply wherever the land is not cleared and cultivated. The mesquites, cacti, 

 chaparral, and sagebrush are considered by the author only as an episode of 

 the bionomic history of the region and not as its original or normal condition 

 or an index to its agricultural possibility. It is believed that they are merely 

 the forerunners of a larger forest growth. 



Dry-laud agriculture (U. S. Dept. Ayr., Bur. Plant Indus. Bui. 130, pp 1-90, 

 fig-t. .'/). — This bulletin contains the following papers, read at the second annual 

 meeting of the cooperative experiment association of the Great Plains area, 

 held at Manhattan. Kans., June 26-27, 1907 : The Development of Dry-land 

 Farming, by E. A. Burnett ; Some Soil Studies in Dry-land Regions, by F. J. 

 Alway : Crop Production -under Humid and Dry Conditions, by E. G. Mont- 

 gomery ; Blowing Soils, by L. E, Hazen ; Plant Breeding in Conjunction with 

 Dry-land Agriculture, by L. R. Waldron ; Rate of Sowing Durum Wheat, by 

 L. Ii. Waldron ; Fruit Growing on the Plains, by J. E. Payne ; Oklahoma 

 Rotations and their Relation to Soil Culture Woi'k, by L. A. Moorhouse ; and 

 Dry-laud Plant Breeding, by J. H. Shepperd. 



Dry-land grains, W. M. Jardine ( U. 8. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant Indus. Give. 12, 

 pp. 3-14). — An address delivered at the Trans-Missouri Dry-Farming Congress 

 at Salt Lake City, Utah, January 23, 1908. 



The different grains adapted to dry-land culture are enumerated, and the 

 great wheat groups, hard spring, hard winter, semisoft white, and soft white 

 wheats are discussed. The hulless types of barley, Tennessee Winter barley, 

 and Sixty Day, Kherson, Burt, and Swedish Select oats are considered prom- 

 ising for dry-land conditions, and the grain sorghums, milo maize, black hull 

 Kafir corn, and red Kafir corn are recommended as valuable for the arid region. 



The regions where the different wheat groups are grown under dry farming 

 are pointed out. The durum wheats have proved themselves drought-resistant 

 and rust-resistant, and it is believed that they will ultimately become the lead- 

 ing spring type in dry-land agriculture. It is stated that the durum wheat crop 

 of 1907 exceeded .50,000,000 bu. The hard winter or Crimean group of wheats 

 has shown a wide adaptability and excellent drought resistance. It is thought 

 that the only possible way to obtain a steady and permanent market for grains, 

 especially in the intermountain area, is to concentrate on as few varieties as 

 r»ossible. 



Alfalfa (Kansas 8ta. Bui. 155, pp. 183-345, figs. 60).— This bulletin consists 

 of the following series of papers on alfalfa: History and varieties, alfalfa 

 breeding, and diseases of alfalfa by G. F. Freeman; the seeding of alfalfa, 

 management of alfalfa in the field, the alfalfa seed crop, alfalfa hay— its mak- 

 ing, handling and marketing, and handling and treating alfalfa land by A. M. 

 Ten Eyck ; the adulterants, substitutes and impurities of alfalfa seed and their 



