ORCHARD-GRASS, OAT-GRASS, ^ROME-GRASSES 201 



4. Breaking the sod in fall, and sowing oats or other 

 small grain in spring. The next season a full crop of 

 grass is obtained. 



220. Seed-production. The seed of brome-grass is 

 mainly grown in North and South Dakota, and in Mani- 

 toba and Saskatchewan. It is cut at the stage called 

 " brown " when the seed is fully formed and nearly ripe. 

 It is usually harvested with a binder, more rarely with 

 a header and occasionally with a mowing machine. 

 When a binder is used, the grass is cut as high as possible 

 and the bundles then shocked for curing. The tall stubble 

 is then cut for hay and yields about one ton per acre. 

 Harvesting the seed with a header leaves a larger amount 

 of the grass for hay. 



The seed is thrashed with an ordinary thrashing machine, 

 using special riddles, and with the wind shut off to prevent 

 the seed from blowing over. The seed usually contains 

 fragments of straw which cannot all be separated even 

 with a fanning mill. 



Seed yields average from about 250 to 350 pounds to the 

 acre. At the Saskatchewan Experimental Farm as high 

 as 600 pounds to the acre were secured. At the Iowa Ex- 

 periment Station 300 pounds were obtained. At North 

 Platte, Nebraska, three plots yielded respectively 157, 

 200 and 700 pounds to the acre, the first plot being on land 

 previously in alfalfa. 



221. Seed. Although brome-grass seed is easily 

 distinguished, it is sometimes adulterated with meadow 

 fescue, perennial rye-grass and cheat. European seed 

 sometimes contains quack-grass as an impurity, and the 

 seeds of this are very similar to western wheat-grass, 

 which may occur in American seed. 



The best commercial brome-grass seed attains a purity 



