TWO PROMINENT SOUTHERN GRASSES 141 



pleinent not found on many small farms. In plowing 

 it is necessary to cut and turn over every inch of the 

 land. By doing this it is entirely possible to plow a 

 Johnson grass meadow in spring, harrow out the root- 

 stocks, and make a good cultivated crop the same year; 

 but it requires careful work, and a great deal of it, to do 

 so. The grass may be entirely eradicated in a single 

 season if the farmer can spare the land and afford the 

 necessary labor. The best way to do this is to plow 

 the land with a turning-plow in the fall, selecting a 

 time when the soil is mellow. Harrow out as many 

 rootstocks as possible and remove them from the field. 

 Then sow some winter grain, such as oats, barley, or 

 rye. Wheat is too late in maturing. The grain should 

 be cut for hay in the spring, and the land plowed again 

 immediately and thoroughly harrowed, as in the fall 

 previous. Then every time the most forward bunches 

 of grass reach four to six inches in hight, run over the 

 land with a heel-scrape or any other implement that 

 shaves off the surface of the soil. To be effective this 

 shaving process must be so thorough that every sprig of 

 grass is cut. If this is kept up till October every ves- 

 tige of Johnson grass will be destroyed. It may come 

 again from seed the next year, but the seedling plants 

 may be killed, like any other weed, by thorough culti- 

 vation. Care should be taken not to let any of them 

 get large enough to send out rootstocks before destroy- 

 ing them. Some badly infested farms have been freed 

 from this pest by the above method. 



The usual practice is to take one field at a time for 

 this treatment, taking several years to extend the work 

 of eradication over the whole farm. With a rational 



