54 FOR BETTER CROPS IN TEE SOUTH 



seed must be made very fine and mellow, and the seed sown at 

 the rate of five pounds per acre at cotton-planting time. 



Johnson Grass Is Used Extensively for Hay — This grass 

 makes a rank growth on heavy, loam soils. It gives two or three 

 cuttings annually, with a yield of three to six tons per acre. 

 The hay is rather coarse, but is eaten well by all kinds of stock, 

 and liverymen prefer it to any other. It does not bear tramp- 

 ling well, and soon becomes weak and stunted when the land is 

 used as pasture. It makes its best growth on the heavy, black, 

 lime soils, but even there the field should be plowed and har- 

 rowed once in two or three years to prevent the roots from 

 becoming so matted and dense as to check the growth and 

 decrease the yield. Many farmers plow the land annually in 

 September and then sow with a mixture of winter oats and 

 vetch, which gives the best of winter grazing, and, if stock is 

 taken off in March, a heavy crop of hay may be harvested in May, 



The soy bean supplies a 'wealth of forage 



which will permit two heavy cuttings of the Johnson grass later 

 in the season. The one serious objection to its cultivation is 

 the fact that it spreads easily and is difficult to eradicate when 

 once established in a field. Many farmers object to it on that 

 account. 



In seeding Johnson Grass the land should be prepared as 

 for wheat or oats, and the seed sown at cotton-planting time at 

 the rate of one bushel per acre, and covered by harrowing. 



Alfalfa Is Adapted to Some Sections— Alfalfa makes a 

 vigorous growth and a heavy yield in some sections, but is worth- 

 less in other localities. It does well in all of the "black prairie" 

 belt of Alabama and Mississippi, on the alluvial soils along the 

 Mississippi, Yazoo, Red, and other large rivers, on the "black 

 wax" lands of eastern Texas, and on practically all river-bottom 

 lands where there is a well drained subsoil and where the sur- 

 face soil is rich in lime, but has never been a profitable crop on 



