34 GRASSES AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



done without loss, is usually greatly advantageous to 

 grasses sown with a nurse crop, since the weather is 

 usually both hot and dry as the harvest season ap- 

 proaches. The chief objection to flax as a nurse crop is 

 the late season at which it is sown, but some authorities 

 cherish the opinion that there is something in the flax 

 itself that is not favorable to the growth of grasses after 

 the crop has been removed. Nevertheless, the sowing of 

 grasses with flax is frequently attended with a fair meas- 

 ure of success. Experience in growing grasses with a 

 rape crop is limited, but in some instances it has suc- 

 ceeded. The same is true of sowing them with mixed 

 crops grown for grain or for soiling. The one objection 

 to growing them thus is found in the greater relative 

 thickness to which such crops are usually sown. But 

 in the case of soiling crops, the removal of these before 

 maturity is so far favorable to the growth of the young 

 plants. Peas and vetches, when sown to produce 

 grain are usually hurtful to grasses sown with them, 

 since they nearly always lodge some considerable time 

 before they mature. But in some instances grasses and 

 also clovers are sown along with grain or forage plants 

 sown alone or in combinations to provide grazing for 

 horses, cattle, sheep or swine. When such grazing is 

 grown it is more commonly on the humus soils of the 

 prairies and in areas in which the rainfall is less than 

 normal. Grasses and also clovers are sown on these in 

 the usual way when the forage crop is sown. As soon as 

 the grain has become well started the animals are 

 turned in to graze upon it. In some instances a better 

 and surer stand may be obtained than from sowing the 



