SOUTHERN GRASSES 243 



Bermuda does not grow in winter, but if bur clover be 

 sown it will make good winter pasturage and reseed itself 

 from year to year. Hairy vetch is also useful for the same 

 reason, but does not reseed itself so well. Another excel- 

 lent plan is to seed Bermuda pastures in the fall to Italian 

 rye-grass, which grows rapidly and furnishes pasturage 

 until the following summer. This grass is also often sown 

 in Bermuda lawns to make a green lawn in the winter. 

 White clover is also an excellent plant to grow with Ber- 

 muda for pasturage. 



Good Bermuda pastures will carry one cow to the acre 

 during the summer and the best Bermuda and lespedeza 

 mixed pastures will support two cattle to the acre during 

 the summer. 



288. Feeding value. The only feeding experiments 

 reported are by the Mississippi Experiment Station. In 

 one experiment Bermuda was compared with timothy as a 

 hay feed for work mules, and the conclusion reached that 

 they were of equal value. 



In experiments with dairy cows during three years the 

 results indicate that Bermuda hay has practically the same 

 value as timothy hay for the production of milk and butter. 



289. Seed-production. Commercial seed of Bermuda- 

 grass has heretofore been obtained wholly from Australia, 

 but recently it has been gathered in Arizona and southern 

 California. The culms are often only four or five inches 

 high, but the seed is held firmly long after it becomes ripe. 

 No data concerning the yields of seed seem to have been 

 recorded. 



In humid regions Bermuda sets seed sparingly or only 

 in periods of unusually dry weather. Seed has been found 

 in Louisiana, Florida and North Carolina, while at Wash- 

 ington, D.C., it is quite freely formed. 



