SETARIA, BEAUV. . 173 



equal to anything at the North*. It is improved by breaking up 

 once in a while." 



Mr. Montgomery, of the same state, has no hesitancy in say- 

 ing that it will produce more nutritious hay per acre on rich 

 land than any meadow grass we can grow. To insure a fine 

 quality of hay it should be mowed when the first seed stems ap- 

 pear. Overflows and standing water are death to it. A good 

 plan to propagate this grass is to drop roots between the hills of 

 corn and cultivate with the corn crop. 



Here follows the statement of Professor Shelton, of Kansas: 

 " We have had Johnson grass in cultivation upon the college 

 farm for four years, and every year's experience with it makes 

 its total worthlessness the more conspicuous. It never makes its 

 appearance with us much before the first of June, and the first 

 frost in the -fall cuts it even with the ground. During the 

 summer's heat it makes a coarse, scattering growth of herbage 

 which our cattle persist in disliking. I notice that our patch 

 slowly increases in size from scattering seeds and rootstocks. 

 You can safely advise your readers in Kansas and the southwest, 

 to keep entirely clear of Johnson grass." 



Dr. Vasey says : " It has been tried in Kansas with very 

 promising results. Probably no grass gives better promise for 

 the dry arid lands of the West." 



It may be propagated by pieces of rootstocks or by seeds. 

 The writer has tested it on a small scale in Central Michigan, 

 but many of the rootstocks are killed by winter while a few 

 usually remain. It has produced some seed even in the coolest 

 summers. The ^seeds start slowly, and no sprouts from any 

 source appear above ground till the weather becomes warm and 

 settled. 



SETARIA, BEAUV. t 



Spikelets, ovate, jointed with the persistent pedicel, which 

 bears one to many bristles, collected into a cylindrical spike-like 



