360 DRY LAND FARMING 



seem reasonable to suppose that the sand vetch has an 

 important mission in supplying pasture in dry areas, but 

 the value of this plant for such a mission has not been 

 fully determined. But any of the spring grains may be 

 thus used in providing grazing, more especially when 

 the weather is adverse to profitable production in the 

 crop if allowed to mature. In such instances it may be 

 more profitable to graze the crop and then to summer- 

 fallow the land to prepare it for a crop that will follow. 

 This method of procedure would be vastly ahead of that 

 which allows the crop to continue to sap moisture from 

 the soil as soon as it is certain that the crop has failed 

 from lack of moisture, or for other reasons. 



Pasture from grains grown in combination. More 

 pasture will be obtained from grains grown in combina- 

 tion than from grains grown alone. This follows from 

 the fact that the maximum periods for best growth in the 

 various grains differ. When several are grown together 

 the period of good grazing is, therefore, more prolonged 

 than if these were grown separately for the purpose of 

 providing pasture. This will hold true of autumn and 

 also of spring grains, but these should not be sown 

 together in order to provide pasture. 



The best combination of autumn-sown grains to pro- 

 vide pasture is probably winter rye and the sand vetch. 

 Next to this would probably be winter wheat and the 

 sand vetch. The value of this combination will depend 

 in a considerable degree on the behavior of the sand vetch 

 when thus grown and this has not been fully determined 

 in many areas of the dry region. The spring-sown grains 

 will probably furnish increased grazing in proportion as 

 the number of various classes of grains are used in the 

 admixture. But when determining the mixtures that 

 shall be grown, the market values should be considered. 

 As a rule the policy will be wise that selects the grains 



