SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. : 
of similar cows grazed on an equal area of the same pasture unmanured. 
The results of these experiments demonstrated that manuring for milk 
is profitable, and that the carrying capacity for cows of a poor pasture 
can be considerably increased by manuring. ‘It was found that on the » 
poor pastures tested it was possible for cows in milk to more than pay 
the cost of the basic slag in the first season after application by reason 
of the greater number of cows carried. Particular attention is drawn to 
the fact that the advantage gained by manuring poor pastures lies not 
so much in the individual increase in milk yield per cow as in the 
additional carrying capacity of the pasture. 
SUDAN GRASS. 
Ten years after its introduction to the United States from Khartoum, 
Africa, Sudan grass was being successfully grown in nearly all parts 
of the United States, states the Weekly News Letter. It does not 
serve well either as a ‘money crop” or a soil improver, hence it may 
néver find a permanent place in regular crop rotations. It has, never- — 
theless, a very important place in the farmer’s second line of defence 
as a catch crop, which can be planted to give satisfactory returns when 
conditions have brought failure to other hay crops. “This is the verdict 
pronounced by the United States Department of Agriculture in the 
Farmers Bulletin 1126 recently issued. : 
_ Sudan grass is replacing millet as the premier catch crop in many 
localities, because of its ability to produce a fair yield and a high 
quality of hay under conditions of low rainfall, its rather short growing 
season, and its ability to thrive on a wide range of soil types. Large — 
yields of Sudan grass are obtained only on good soils, but the grass 
fails completely only on cold, poorly drained land. 
Sudan grass produces heavily. In California, under irrigation, it 
has made yields of 9.8 tons of field-cured hay an acre, when alfalfa 
produced but 8.3 tons under like conditions; it ordinarily yields about 
the same as alfalfa under irrigation in the South-west, but Sudan grass 
gives its full crop in three cuttings against the four or five required for 
alfalfa. It is the only grass yet found which, in this part of the United 
States, ranks as the equal of alfalfa in point of yield and quality of the 
hay. Its record, in this respect, has led to its use in “patching” old 
alfalfa fields when the stand of alfalfa has been destroyed. In the 
Southern Great Plains, where there is a low rainfall, Sudan grass grown 
without irrigation will yield from one to three tons of hay to the acre. 
There ave certain parts of the United (States where the Department 
of Agriculture considers it unwise to depend on Sudan grass for hay. 
This is true of the strip of territory 200 miles wide along the northern 
boundary; the regions of high altitudes in the Western States; and 
also most of Florida and a narrow strip of land along the Gulf coast. 
Low temperatures prevent success with the grass in the first two 
‘regions named, and disease is the limiting factor along the Gulf coast. 
In a majority of the Central and Southern States, however, climatic 
and soil conditions are favorable to Sudan grass. 
_ Although Sudan grass is best adapted by nature to use as a hay crop, 
it is also used with great success as a soiling and pasture crop for 
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