38 BULLETIN" 981, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF' AGRICULTURE. 



time and the separation of grain from the legume seed is easy, growing 

 grain crops in mixtures will be found impracticable. This objection 

 does not apply with equal force to hay crops, because uniformity in 

 maturity is not so essential. Several notable examples of such 

 mixtures are found in American agriculture, the most common of 

 which is timothy and red clover. Rye and vetch, oats and vetch, 

 oats and field peas, and barley and field peas are other combinations 

 illustrating this practice. 



Cowpeas or soy beans are often sown with millet or sorghum by 

 southern farmers, and the combination of these legumes with Sudan 

 grass has been found equally promising in the humid regions. (Fig. 

 21.) Table VII shows in detail the results of mixed plantings of 



Fig. 21. — A mixed planting of Sudan grass and soy beans at the Arlington Experimental Farm, Va., 1914. 



these forage crops in the Southeastern States. Tests of the same 

 mixtures were made in the semiarid regions, but in regions of limited 

 rainfall the practice was found unprofitable. The Sudan grass 

 almost invariably started growth quicker and overcame the legume 

 plants by exhausting the available soil moisture before the legumes 

 had become well rooted, or the grass increased in height so rapidly 

 that they were shaded out, the result usually being that at harvest 

 time only the Sudan grass was present in any quantity. 



The data in Table VII indicate that so far as the yields are con- 

 cerned it makes little difference whether cowpeas or soy beans are 

 used in the mixtures. The quality of the hay is first-class in both 

 cases, but it is generally conceded that the soy bean, on account of 



