TWO PROMINENT SOUTHERN GRASSES 1 33 



as cow-peas or velvet beans, Bermuda grass can be ex- 

 terminated in a single season. ' ' A very good system 

 to pursue for tbis purpose on a stock-farm is to sow 

 oats in the fall, harvest them for hay in the spring, 

 and then seed thickly to cow-peas or velvet beans. 

 South of Tennessee and Arkansas there is plenty of 

 time for two crops of cow-peas in summer. This system 

 continued for two seasons on land that is properly 

 manured usually eradicates the grass completely, and 

 gives two or three good crops of hay a year. One 

 season of such treatment is frequently suflBcient. 

 Sorghum and millet are also good summer crops to 

 use in getting rid of Bermuda grass. For this purpose 

 sorghum should be sown thick — say, two bushels of 

 seed to the acre. Bermuda grass, being of low growth, 

 is completely shaded out by these taller, dense-growing 

 crops. On good land in the South, oats yield two to 

 two and a half tons, and sorghum six to ten tons, of 

 excellent hay per acre. Killing Bermuda grass ought, 

 therefore, to be a profitable pastime on Southern farms 

 where hay is needed. 



From what has been said it is clear that Bermuda 

 grass is not seriously to be dreaded on a farm devoted 

 to a rational system of crop rotation. Some of the best 

 farmers the writer has ever known in the South make 

 constant use of Bermuda grajss for pasture on the 

 rougher portions of the farm, and are never bothered 

 with it in the slightest degree on the cultivated fields. 

 Since it produces no seed, except in the extreme South, 

 there is no danger that stock will scatter it in their 

 droppings. Where it does not produce seed there is 

 Uttle difficulty in controlling it, and there is no ques- 



