176 GRASSES AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



grass flourishes, it may be turned to excellent account 

 in supplying the land with humus. In areas where the 

 soils are so light that they lift with the wind, it may 

 be made to render valuable service by counteracting this 

 evil through the binding influence of the roots. Its value 

 for both uses is assuredly very great. Where Russian 

 brome grass is grown in such areas, it should therefore 

 be followed by such crops as corn or the small cereal 

 grains. If the roots are so many that a good seed bed 

 for small grain cannot be made without too much labor, 

 corn should be the first crop grown, since more time 

 would be available in preparing the seed bed, and the 

 cultivation following would accelerate decay in the sod, 

 which would then be in good condition to receive some 

 small cereal grain crop the following year. In areas 

 where corn does not grow well or is not needed, winter 

 rye will reduce a stiff sod more quickly and effectively 

 than the other small cereals. The beneficial effects of 

 the decaying sod mechanically and also on the reten- 

 tion of moisture would thus be felt for a number of 

 years, how many, would depend on the degree of the 

 precipitation. It would, at least, be felt long enough 

 to influence favorably the growth of two or three crops 

 following. 



In the southern states, when Russian brome grass can 

 as a rule be sown with much greater advantage in the 

 autumn than in the spring, it may be made to follow 

 any crop of the season that has been removed sufficient- 

 ly early to admit of properly preparing the ground. It 

 may therefore follow with much propriety any kind of 

 winter cereal as wheat, rye, oats or barley, grown alone 



