THE CULTURE AND USES OF BROME-GRASS. 55 
allowed to lie idle. Returns are of course obtained from the land 
if the breaking is done in June or July after cutting a crop of hay. 
In the drier portions spring plowing is necessary, but since grain can 
not be sown on the sod no returns are obtained until the following 
year. Good results are sometimes secured from breaking the sod in 
the fall and sowing oats or some other small grain in the spring. 
When this is done the grass comes on for a full crop the next year. 
This method, however, is not commonly practiced. 
Disking appears to give better results in the humid than in the 
drier sections, but in general it can hardly be said to give entire 
satisfaction. Better results are obtained on sandy or loose soil than 
on a heavy soil where a tough sod is formed. Farmers who have 
done very little toward improving their meadows are commonly of 
the opinion that disking is an effective means of renewing them, but 
actual experiments indicate that the value of this treatment is con- 
siderably overrated. Harrowing with a drag harrow in July after 
the hay is cut has proved beneficial in some instances. 
The practice of applying barnyard manure to unproductive 
meadows has not been followed to any great extent, and under present 
conditions it 1s hardly practicable. The results obtained from such 
treatment have not been very definite, and in some cases they have 
been quite contradictory. That a lberal application of barnyard 
manure, even when no other treatment is given, will materially in- 
crease the yield of hay from a so-called “ sod-bound ” meadow has 
been proved by reliable and successful farmers. Best results have 
been obtained by applying an even top-dressing early in the spring 
before the grass begins to grow. Sheep manure has been found to be 
very beneficial. | 
Hardly sufficient evidence has been obtained to warrant definite 
statements regarding the value of various fertilizers. Prof. J. H. 
Shepperd, of the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, in 
the season of 1905 obtained some results that were very favorable to 
the use of nitrate of soda. At the Highmore station, South Dakota, 
experiments conducted with the same fertilizers in 1906 gave rather 
indifferent results. The data available on the subject of renewing 
meadows by either barnyard manure or commercial fertilizers are so 
incomplete and the practice of renewal in this way is so unusual 
that it is not considered advisable to discuss the subject further at 
this time. 
MIXTURES OF BROME-GRASS WITH OTHER GRASSES. 
Some attention is being given to mixtures of brome-grass with 
other grasses, and very good results are being obtained. The practice 
ii—vy 
