GRAINS AND FORAGE CROPS S3 



resown. As to sowing barley as a nurse crop for sweet clover, it will 

 be the barley that will need a nurse when their fight is over. 



Starting Bermuda Grass. 



Plotv shall I start Bermuda grass, from the seed or the slip? Is it 

 necessary to cultivate the ground f 



It is easiest to start Bermuda with root pieces which can be scat- 

 tered and harrowed in; or they may be dibbled in at intervals of a 

 couple of feet or so. This can be done at any time when the soil is 

 warm and moist. But be sure you wish to have Bermuda as a 

 constant tenant before you do it. It will need no cultivation to stay 

 in and it will defy cultivation to get it out. 



Bermuda Grass and Ground Freezing. 



Will Bermuda grass grow where there are real cold winters? 



Bermuda grass is of very little value in the United States north 

 of Maryland. Even in places northward, where ground freezing may 

 not be hard enough to kill the roots, it is still so late to start and 

 so frequently cut back by frosts that it is of little account. The same 

 rules would apply to the Pacific Coast: viz., where there is hard 

 ground freezing or liability to frost late in the spring and early in 

 the fall Bermuda is practically useless. 



Bermuda with Other Crops. 



Tell me a good method for eradicating Bermuda grass of long stand- 

 ing on moist river bottom land. Is Egyptian corn a profitable crop to sow 

 on rich bottom lands? 



We know no way to get Bermuda out of such land, except by a 

 long process of fallowing and weekly under-cutting to prevent the 

 Bermuda from ever seeing the light. But you can work in other 

 plants to fight Bermuda and make good forage or pasture with them. 

 If the water is not too near the surface, alfalfa will fight it with 

 chance of keeping a good hold if started in February, if the place is 

 not too frosty, when the Bermuda is dormant. If water is too near 

 the surface, red clover will work instead of alfalfa. Sorghums will 

 all be glad to grow on rich bottom land of course, but on such land 

 Indian corn would probably be more profitable. Neither would, how- 

 ever, do much on Bermuda sod until after the killing process. (See 

 also Part III, Vol. I.) 



When to Inoculate Bur Clover. 



Is it profitable to inoculate bur clover seed before planting? I aim 

 to reseed a worn out pasture that has never been plowed and has no irri- 

 gation. The land is red and bakes hard and produces nothing but a light 

 crop of wild oats and foxtail. 



