Grains and Forage Crops 107 



Cow Peas Not Preparatory for Corn, 



What time of the yair can cojc peas be planted, and can the entire 

 crop be plowed under in time for planting Held cornf 



Cowpeas are very subject to frost. They are really beans, and 

 therefore can be grown in the winter time only in a few practically 

 frostless places. Wherever frosts are likely to occur they must be 

 planted, like beans and corn, when the frost danger is over. Field 

 peas, Canadian peas and vetches are hardy against frost and there- 

 fore safer for winter growth, and treated as you propose they may 

 be preparatory for corn-growing providing you plow them under soon 

 enough to get a month or more for decay before planting the corn. 



Oats and Rust. 



Is there any variety of oats that is rust-proof, or any method of treat- 

 ing oats that ivill render them rust resistant? We are situated on a moun- 

 tain, only about 12 miles from the coast, and have considerable foggy 

 weather, zvhich most of the farmers here say is the cause of the rust. 



There is no way of treating oats which will prevent smut, if the 

 variety is liable to it. There is a great difference in the resistance of 

 different varieties. A few dark-colored oats are practically rust-proof, 

 and you can get seed of them from the seedsmen in San Francisco 

 and Los Angeles. Such varieties are chiefly grown on the southern 

 coast. Foggy weather has much to do with the rust, because it 

 causes atmospheric moisture which is favorable to the growth of the 

 fungus, which is usually checked by dry heat, and yet there are at- 

 mospheric conditions occasionally which favor the rust even in the 

 driest parts of the State. The fog favors rust, but does not cause it. 

 The cause is a fungus, long ago thoroughly understood and named 

 puccinia graminis. 



Midsummer Hay Sowing. 



Can I sozu oats or barley in July upon irrigated mesa land, with the 

 object of making hay in the falU Which of the two would do the better 

 in summer timet I have plenty of water. 



We have never seen this done to advantage. If you desire to try 

 it, irrigate thoroughly and plow and sow afterward. Use barley rather 

 than oats and irrigate when the plant shades the land well, if you get 

 growth enough to warrant it. It will be easier to get the crop than 

 to figure a profit in it. 



Loose Hay by Measure. 



How many cubic feet should be allowed for a ton of alfalfa hay loaded 

 on a wagon from the shock? I must sell more or less in that tuay, as no 

 scales are near enough to be used. 



It is a proposition, as to the weight of loose hay, which could of 

 course keep changing the higher you built the load on the wagon. 

 It is easier to give figures on weight from a stack in which there has 

 been something like uniform pressure for a time. In the case from 



