OTHER IMPORTANT FORAGE GRASSES 87 



The field is then planted in a cultivated crop. This 

 crop should be given extra cultivation and stray plants 

 of Johnson grass pulled up by hand when it heads out. 



In regions where Johnson grass is common it may be 

 rotated with grain. The sod is broken in the late summer 

 and oats or other small grain sown in the early fall. 

 After the grain is harvested in the spring the grass is 

 allowed to grow and will produce two or sometimes three 

 crops of hay. In the late summer the land is again 

 broken for the small grain. In this way a fair crop of 

 grain is secured in addition to a good hay crop. 



Description. — Stems rather stout, erect, 3 to 5 feet 

 tall, producing strong scaly rootstocks; sheaths smooth; 

 blades flat, smooth, roughened on the edges, i to 3 feet 

 long, 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide, tapering to a fine point, the 

 white midrib conspicuous; panicle 6 inches to 2 feet 

 long, large and open like oats or sorghum, usually 

 purplish, the branches 2 to 4 together, naked below; 

 spikelets somewhat crowded along the upper half or two- 

 thirds of the branches. The blades and sheaths are 

 often splashed with purple as in sorghum, this being due 

 to a bacterial disease. 



Details of the Spikelet. — Spikelets in pairs or the 

 terminal in 3's, one sessile and fertile, the other i or 2 

 pediceled and staminate. Fertile spikelet about 5 mm. 

 long, dorsally flattened, elliptic or ovate-lanceolate, in- 

 distinctly nerved, firm and coriaceous, often bearing a 

 twisted and bent awn about as long as or a little longer 

 than the spikelet, at first pubescent but later becoming 

 smooth and shining on the exposed parts. Staminate 

 spikelets more slender, slightly longer than the fertile. 



