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SURE FEED CROPS

BY
JOHN FIELDS
ih
Editor Oklahoma Farm Journal

OKLAHOMA CITY
OKLAHOMA FARM JOURNAL
1914

Copyright 1912
Copyright 1914
JOHN FIELDS

All rights reserved

Mae
DEC 17 «S14

©c.a3g1018
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CONTENTS

PAGE
General Statements .......... Cia anette’ a wa wa niatewia ohana S
The Grain:
POI te acta n't saves wl aso, ai Mevlain eed ye siae bale Sate kate ad 7
PRU RENE iia ui haa sl avsv'n' aia evele of dra ore wal ove cis eked oiuraialers bear Sosa
POPC ete oul dates mals Walaleeiy Gala bkld ck eh wlbimclal mate 41
Cottonseed radical cole. eiceich'oe av aa tnans ware wee 44
The Forage:
SRPREMMRP IRS ay 2d. sha nn hs Vas wsdl ales ah SM GL Biles eee Muh Bima eR blag 53
MMP CRES CORT cg crass erg tiaiailel die ween see Wa: aNd ane atatdvalta ae Gitar Sy 100
ee IML UES Lae d is nhc hn iain aps eH aR ee Vis hig as Qe Rimes RR PA es 111
aR SPON RETA Pol sod 8 Da va alla SR, wre ad wrasse od & Sigtinl wie a abala io ley eh avavbtel ate 118
MPN LNG ahi dint are Kak yo ela «aren a Slate bia crm amet ate ive ee
SUCRE LM ah. is) cubtins, Gui) have er ikl oi Wn haw iatatel we akcd eae 125
The Pasture:
TRAE ROU ad 5 J)u's ea eraracada@le aa 'e whale Sle raraimiaat eas 135
Cement rasres And COVETS i ais od ona eiule wd cw ee aiaicla 164
BUNGAL EY astute CODE eee ss eee ele bind cle walla Deen 177

To the men, women, and children who are
building and maintaining homes on the farms
of the Central Southwest, and whose friendship
and esteem are valued above all things else, this

book is dedicated by
THE AUTHOR.

SURE FEED CROPS.

GENERAL STATEMENTS

1. Abundant and regular supplies of feed for
livestock are vital to individual and collective
agricultural prosperity. Livestock always have
been the basis of every permanently profitable
system of farming. Without the certainty of
production of abundant feed crops, in unfavor-
able as well as in favorable years, the raising of
livestock on the farm is as likely to result in
loss as in profit through a series of years. If, at
irregular periods, because of shortage of feed,
it is necessary for farmers to dispose of their
livestock, they must do so on a falling market at
a great loss. Their investment in equipment for
the care of livestock becomes unproductive and
the entire system of farming becomes disar-
ranged. When the time of plenty comes again,
the building up of the breeding herds is a slow
and expensive process. The supply is short and
the demand is strong, making prices high.

2. Wide variations in climatic conditions in
the United States call for greater differences in
agricultural practice than have generally been
recognized. The farmers from the Atlantic
coast states who pushed into the unknown, set-

2 SURE FEED CROPS

tling the Ohio valleys; the prairies of Indiana,
Illinois, and Iowa; the valleys and plains of
Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas; brought with
them their stores of practical experience in
farming. Each at first followed the methods
and tried to grow the crops to which he was
accustomed. Many still do so. Capital for the
development of new localities was required; it
must be had from the old states, and the men
who controlled it must be convinced that condi-
tions are as they expected them to be. Scientific
investigation of all matters pertaining to agri-
culture in the United States began along the
eastern border; text and reference books relat-
ing to farming have largely been written from
the standpoint of conditions which do not exist
in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Every influ-
ence has tended to cause farmers in these states
to follow the old methods and grow the old
crops.

3. A system of farming, based upon experi-
ence and experiment in these states of the Cen-
tral Southwest, where rainfall is always vari-
able and often deficient, and where strong winds
and high summer temperatures introduce condi-
tions unknown to farmers of the Northern and
Atlantic coast states, must be developed and
adopted. With limitations and modifications
which are indicated elsewhere in this volume,
the general plan of operations should be the ~
following:

Not less than ten acres of kafircorn or milo-

GENERAL STATEMENTS 3

maize should be planted in April, May, or June
every year on every farm. When drouth comes,
they produce as much grain as corn averages
in the best years; and the better the soil and the
season, the higher the yield of these drouth-
resisters.

Corn should be planted only on bottom lands.

Every acre of good, rich bottom land should
be put to alfalfa as soon as possible. |

The washy soils, hillsides, rough places, alkali
lands, and low, overflow bottoms should be set
to hardy bermuda grass, wherever this grass
thrives.

The smooth, tillable uplands and prairies
should be planted to kafircorn or milomaize for
a sure crop of grain for feed and sale, to cowpeas
and peanuts for feed and forage and soil im-
provement, and to oats, wheat, broom corn, and
cotton for cash crops, wherever the soil and
climate are suitable. :

Those who follow such a system, stick to it,
and feed most of what they produce to good
livestock, will be the ultimate owners of the
farms of the Central Southwest.

4, Production must replace speculation before
farming will be on a safe business basis. for a
period in the eighties and early nineties in
Kansas, and until very recently in Oklahoma
and Texas, the get-rich-quick idea seemed to
dominate everything. The influence of the
towns, where nearly everything centered around
schemes to sell lots for greater and still greater

t SURE FEED CROPS

prices, extended to the farms. The purpose of
those who farmed seemed to be to get the land
into such shape and crops as would make it sell
readily to someone else whose purpose was not
to make it his home, but to sell at a higher
figure to still others with the same idea. Per-
manent agricultural prosperity cannot come
until attention is turned from speculation to
production. Whatever has been unfavorable in
the past has been largly the fault of men who
have hoped for a change in climatic conditions
to suit their desires and who have failed to
appreciate the fact that regular and certain
production of crops, every year, is the only
foundation for permanent land values.

5. Rainfall does not increase and the climate
does not change as the result of the occupation
of any region by men. ‘‘The So-Called Change
of Climatic Conditions in the Semiarid West”?
is fully discussed in an article by Richard H.
Sullivan, Local Forecaster, Weather Bureau,.
Wichita, Kansas, in the 1908 Yearbook of the
U. 8. Department of Agriculture. He states:
“It is the man that has changed. not the climate,
and the face of nature has changed with efforts
far exceeding those of the early eastern
pioneers. The western man who has observed
the wilderness blossom as the rose decries his
own power when he charges to the account of
change of climate the blessings resulting from |
his own initiative. It required much more than
the buzzing of the drones while the climate was

GENERAL STATEMENTS )

‘changing’ to make orchards, meadows, grain
fields, and vineyards in Oklahoma, Kansas,
Colorado, Nebraska, and the Dakotas.’? And
again: ‘‘ We are led to the conclusion that the
so-called changes in climate have been nothing
more than irregular oscillations; that a succes-
sion of dry years has given way to recurring wet
years; that there are alternating series of warm
and cool years; that drouths are possible in any
part of the country at any time, winter or
summer.’’

6. “‘Scientific agriculture’? has in recent
years come to be an expression with which to
conjure and to obtain increased appropriations
and additional jobs for friends of the adminis-
tration, both national and state. ‘‘Scientists”’
who know but little of science have developed
‘systems’? which they insist will grow corn,
whether it rains or not. Those with lands for
sale in regions of limited and variable rainfall
have lured the hopeful settler on and, in count-
less cases, left him stranded. The mysterious
hocus-pocus which is supposed to make the im-
possible happen with regularity has been in-
voked in all of its forms. But it is coming now
to be understood that the problem of profitable
farming in the Central Southwest has been
solved by many farmers. It may be solved by
all who will grow those crops and follow the
methods which experience has demonstrated
may be depended upon to produce an abundance
of feed for livestock, no matter how unfavorable

6 SURE FEED CROPS

the season. There is no better statement of the
situation than that made by the late Dr. S. A.
Knapp, who said: ‘‘ Agriculture is not a science
and it has but little science in it. That little
science can be taught. The remainder must be
acquired by observation, experience, and busi-
ness methods. Agriculture might be defined as
being about one-eighth science, three-eighths
art, and half business.’’

THE GRAIN

KAFIRCORN

7. Partial failures of Indian corn when the
prairies of Kansas were being developed into
farms brought heavy losses to many of the
early settlers. In 1876, kafireorn was brought
from South Africa, but it was not generally cul-
tivated until 1890. The Kansas Experiment
Station, from 1889 to 1900, investigated cultural
methods and the feeding value of kafircorn. The
Oklahoma Experiment Station, beginning in
1892, followed similar lines of study. The con-
clusions were widely published, but they were
not generally adopted and put in practice by
farmers. Public sentiment opposed the admis-
sion that it was necessary to grow this drouth-
resisting crop. Farmers who persisted in doing
so were called ‘‘kafircorn woolies’’ and urged
to grow a ‘‘dignified crop,’’? such as Indian
corn.

8. Kafircorn made slow progress as an impor-
tant crop. Butler county, Kansas, led in the
production of kafireorn in 1911. In 1897, the
farmers of this Kansas county planted 187,873
acres to Indian corn and it brought a return of
$2.30 per acre. They had begun learning a

4

8 SURE FEED CROPS

little of kafireorn and had 11,714 acres of it
planted that year; it turned off $9.75 per acre.
But the habit of planting large acreages of
Indian corn is firmly fixed. In 1910, thirteen
years later, these farmers had abandoned only
one-third of the acreage of the crop which had
brought in $2.30 per acre and had replaced it
with the crop which cashed in for $9.75 per
acre. In 1910, Butler county, Kansas, had 139,-
924 acres planted to corn; it yielded $6.60 per
acre. And the 58,789 acres planted to kafircorn
turned in $13.00 per acre.

9. The supreme test of kafircorn came in the
season of 1911. Speaking of it, J. B. Adams
of El Dorado, Kansas, who has had much to do
with establishing kafircorn as a real crop in
Butler county, said: ‘‘It was a season of un-
usual severity, the dryest and hottest in Kansas
as it was in Oklahoma since 1901. A pitiless
sun burned up the Indian corn and parched the
native grass upon the prairies. Throughout this
trying ordeal, our unfailing friend, the hardy
and indomitable kafir, stood sentinel upon the
prairies with that patient fortitude inherent in
its nature, born of centuries of hardship upon
the desert; it bided its time and silently waited
for rain, springing triumphantly into new life
with the first downpour from the heavens. Our
prairie hay turned out less than a third of a
crop and our alfalfa only a little better than
half a crop. But notwithstanding this accumu-
lation of calamities, we pushed back the im-

f

THE GRAIN 9

pudent face of famine, cheated the hot winds,
and whipped the drouth to a standstill, with
kafircorn.’’? Referring to the influence of kafir-
corn upon the fortunes of his community, Mr.
Adams said: ‘‘In 1896, half of the upland por-
tion of our county was owned by eastern in-
vestors, fire insurance and loan companies, the
titles having been secured by that peculiar in-
vestment process known as mortgage foreclos-
ures. Uplands that had formerly been consid-
ered worth from $15 to $25 per acre were of-
fered without buyers at from $3 to $8 per acre.
These lands, now selling at from $30 to $50 per
acre, have been bought back by our farmers and
most of them paid for with kafircorn.’’

10. The cash returns from kafircorn and corn
through a series of years show kafircorn’s true
place among the crops grown upon the farms of
the Central Southwest.

The Kansas State Board of Agriculture issues
annual reports based upon assessors’ returns
showing the acreage and value of every crop
grown. The following statement of the cash
value of kafircorn and corn for the past eleven
years was compiled from these published re-
ports. A careful study of it is commended to
those who repeat the statement that Indian
corn yields more than kafircorn, and who in
other ways display their entire lack of knowl-
edge of what they are talking about.

10 SURE FEED CROPS

Value per acre.

Kafircorn Corn

RM LH Renee eae $40.32 $3.20
OS UREA PS nate agi 12.69 11.20
Tepe ei Rs he Meron 9.30 8.74
OE ice nanan ania 9.72 toed:
1S La aN EA hone 9.94 tO
1247 Se CGMM HREM ALS Fe as 9.18 9.89
: 21 eA a GN MeN ES i Gb 9°20
PO BNO 10.88 TESTO
ee tin, Ces Ones aD: LOuTT
ae en tes 12.92 8.89
1100) Ey UGE CARAT py 7.68
Total, 11 years . ...:.$123.03 $99 .27
PAO ee Ue le $ 11.18 $ 9.02

In Kansas, the average cash return from an
acre of kafircorn during the past eleven years
was 23.94 percent. greater than from an acre of
corn. The figures are based on the total acre-
age planted to these crops during that period.

Corn turned off more money than kafircorn in
but three years out of the eleven, and in each
ease the difference per acre was less than a
dollar.

In 1901, the value of kafircorn per acre was
more than three times the value of corn. In
1911, an acre of kafircorn brought more than
twice as much money as an acre of corn.

It is not likely that the best land was planted

THE GRAIN 1i

to kafircorn, or that it had as good cultivation
as corn.

11. Many landowners positively prohibit the
planting of kafircorn on their land. Others en-
courage it. One farm loan company, which has
been in business in Kansas since 1881, and in
Oklahoma since 1889, has adopted the following
plan: ‘‘We have for three years been refusing
to lease land under our charge to a tenant who
will not put at least one-half of the land, in-
tended for corn, to kafircorn, the blackhull
white variety being preferred. On one farm
in Kay county, Central Oklahoma, the tenant
had in 1911, 120 acres of Indian corn which
made thirty bushels to the acre. On this same
farm were 100 acres of kafircorn which made
sixty bushels per acre. The land is of the same
quality. The old idea that kafircorn ruins the
land is passing away. If kafircorn is planted
reasonably early, the grain harvested and the
stalks plowed under while green, the land will
be enriched. We write it in the lease that the
tenants shall plant as much kafircorn as they
plant of Indian corn.’’

12. Growing a crop of kafircorn is not diffi-
eult. In general, the same methods of prepar-
ing the soil, planting, and cultivating as are
used in growing Indian corn should be followed.
Kafireorn will produce a crop on any soil which
will grow anything else; the better the soil, the
higher the yields. Hard land should be plowed

12 SURE FEED CROPS

during the fall and winter and worked down to
a firm seed bed. Flat planting gives better re-
sults than listing on such soils. Very sandy
soils should not be plowed. The lister should
be used in the same manner as for planting
corn on such lands, but shallower.

13. Blackhull white kafircorn is the standard
variety. It has yielded more than others in
practically all comparative tests. Seed of this
variety has been selected and improved by the
Kansas and Oklahoma Experiment Stations and
by growers so that it is now possible to obtain
first class seed for planting. Different varieties
of kafircorn cross-pollenize just as do different
varieties of corn. It is an advantage if all
farmers in a given locality grow the same va-
riety. The grade of the product to be marketed
is lowered by a mixture of varieties, which al-
ways bring lower prices than the pure article.
A germination test of kafireorn seed should
always be made before planting. When stored
in bulk, it heats readily. This injures the seed
so that much of it may not germinate. Kafir-
corn seed which has a musty odor or which
sticks togther in lumps should not be used for
planting.

14, A warm soil is needed for the germination
of kafircorn seed. It should not be planted until
after the usual time of planting Indian corn. In ©
Oklahoma, the highest average yields have been
secured from plantings made from April 15th to

THE GRAIN 13

May 15th, though much kafircorn is planted as
late as June. In regions where cotton is grown,
kafireorn may be planted just before planting
the cotton. Not less than four months from
planting time until frost is desirable for the
maturing of kafircorn. Five months is better,
because in very dry weather, kafircorn waits
and makes practically no progress toward ma-
turity.

15. The distance between viants has an im-
portant bearing upon the yields of kafircorn.
The rows should be not less than three and one-
half feet apart. Where the average annual
rainfall exceeds forty inches, single plants
should be about four inches apart. The dis-
tance between plants should gradually be in-
ereased as the average annual rainfall dimin-
ishes until they are a foot apart in regions with
less than twenty-five inches of rain. Planters
should be adjusted so that single grains are
dropped at the proper distances. The tendency
is to plant kafircorn too thickly, probably be-
cause most planters are equipped with ‘‘cane’’
plates. Blank plates should be obtained and
drilled especially for kafircorn. From two to
five pounds of kafircorn seed will plant an acre,
varying with the distance apart at which the
grains are dropped.

16. The cultivation of kafircorn should be the

same as that given Indian corn. Because of the
fact that kafircorn withstands drouth, many

14 SURE FEED CROPS

fail to give it the care and cultivation which it
must have to produce maximum yields. The
plant is smaller and weaker than Indian corn
when it first comes up. The first cultivations
may be given with the harrow, followed by
whatever implements are available. Late culti-
vation should be shallow so as not to disturb
the extensive root system of the kafircorn,
which fills the soil more completely than the
root system of Indian corn. The harrow culti-
vator with fourteen teeth, or a mower wheel
dragged between the rows will do satisfactory
work. No crust should be permitted to form on
the surface of the soil until after the grain is
practically mature.

17. The harvesting of kafircorn presents some
difficulties to those unaccustomed to the crop.
With experience, these are quickly overcome
and, with proper equipment, the work of har-
vesting kafireorn can be done more quickly and
cheaply than can the husking of Indian corn.
The stalk and leaves of kafircorn remain green
long after the grain is mature, and usually until
eut or killed bv frost. The general custom in
Butler county, Kansas. is to wait until the kafir-
corn has had a light frost. It is then cut with
a corn binder and shocked. After curing in the
shock for several weeks, the bundles are headed
by a knife attached to a wagon box, (19) and
the fodder is reshocked. The heads are stacked ~
like headed wheat, a layer of hay or straw being
first placed on the ground to protect them.

THE GRAIN 15

The threshing is done at convenient times dur-
ing the winter.

18. In the Texas Panhandle, with its dry
climate, the following method, described by a
Swisher county farmer, is in general use:
‘¢When the grain is to be threshed, either for
the market or to be ground and fed, we use an
ordinary grain header of any of the standard
makes. We allow the grain to mature thor-
oughly and prefer, if possible, to have one or
two good frosts before cutting. Handled in this
way, the grain should not be put in too large
ricks on account of danger of heating. With
one man to run the header, two men to run the
header wagons, and one or two extra men to
help unload, from twenty-five to thirty-five
acres per day can be harvested. This method
puts the heads in the ricks ready to be threshed
at one handling.’’ There is also a kafircorn
header which is bolted to the side of a wagon
box and does good work where the heads are
produced at a uniform height.

19. Bound kafircorn can be headed more
cheaply than corn can be husked. A farmer in
Custer county, Western Oklahoma, gives the
following description of his plan: ‘‘I use a
knife made out of an old sixteen-inch plow lay.
The landside piece should be taken off and the
lay sharpened and straightened. Then have a
hole drilled in the point, about an inch from the
end. Bolt a piece of pipe five or six feet long

16 SURE FEED CROPS

to the side of the lay for a handle. Get a flat
piece of iron a little longer than the lay. Have
holes drilled in each end. Bore two holes
through the sideboard of the wagon box to
match this iron, about an inch from the top.
Put the knife in the inside of the wagon box,
then the front end of the piece of iron, and bolt
it. Put a couple of washers between the iron
and the wagon box at the back end and bolt it.
Keep the knife sharp with a file. If possible,
put your box on a wagon with low wheels and
put on double sideboards. One man can cut off
the heads as fast as two can place them under
the knife. The bundles can then be reshocked
very quickly.’’

20. Heading kafircorn by hand is entirely
practicable where only limited acreages are
grown. A well balanced butcher knife or a
very short bladed cane knife should be used and
the heads should be cut off with as short a
shank as possible, so as to hasten curing. Some
leave the heads in small piles in the field for a
few days before stacking; others place the heads
in long ricks, eight to ten feet wide, direct from
the wagons after first putting down a layer of
stalks to keep the heads from the ground.
Covers should be provided for use in case rain
should come before the stack is completed and
to protect the finished stack. If these are not
at hand, the stack of kafircorn heads should be ~
topped out with some material which will turn
water. Kafircorn heads may also be stored in

THE GRAIN Te

roofed cribs, such as are used for storing Indian
corn.

21. Kafircorn is threshed with the regular
machines used for threshing wheat and oats.
Small threshers with gasoline engine on the
same truck are coming into general use in West-
ern Oklahoma and are especially adapted to
rough localities with poor roads. For use on
the farm, it is not necessary in most cases that
all of a crop of kafirecorn be threshed. It is cus-
tomary for the producer to do the threshing
and it is well to delay this work until winter,
when it may be done more cheaply, and the
threshed grain will not heat so readily when
stored. Ventilation from the bottom should al-
ways be provided in bins where threshed kafir-
corn is to be stored. Make one ventilator for
each four feet of length of bin, extending across
the bin and through the wall on each side, and .
raised about one inch from the floor. Two
pieces of one by four lumber, spaced six inches
apart with blocks of wood and covered on the
two open sides with galvanized screen wire and
open to the outside air at the ends, make good
ventilators.

22. Concerning markets for kafircorn, H. M.
Cottrell, Agricultural Commissioner of| the Rock
Island Lines, after extended inquiry among the
largest buyers of grain in Chicago, made the
following statement: ‘‘Kafircorn and milomaize
are worth ninety percent. as much as the same

18 SURE FEED CROPS

weight of corn for feeding work horses, beef
and dairy cattle, hogs and sheep. The limited
supply on the markets and the strong demand
for these grains for poultry feeds has kept the
price at or above that of corn. This has made
it impossible for stockmen to buy these grains
for the regular feeding and fattening of live-
stock. A number of grain men have been con-
sulted and every man stated that whenever the
supply of kafireorn and milomaize became so
large that it assumed an important place in the
markets, it would be absorbed just the same as
corn, oats, barley, and other feeds, selling at a
price compared with the price for other grains
proportionate to its feed value.’’? To reach the
markets, enough must be grown close to a ship-
ping point to make it to someone’s interest to
buy and ship. There may have been no cash
markets for single loads of kafircorn. But a
thousand or ten thousand loads will find a ready
market. no matter what the size of the corn
crop. Kafircorn is usually quoted on the markets
by the hundred weight instead of the bushel of
fifty-six pounds. From seventy-five to eighty
pounds of kafircorn heads, if well cured, will
thresh out fifty-six pounds of grain.

23. Methods of feeding kafircorn differ but
little from the best methods of feeding Indian
corn. Kafircorn must be ground to obtain its
full feeding value. In digestion experiments
conducted by the writer at the Oklahoma Ex-
periment Station in 1897-’98, two-thirds of the

THE GRAIN 19

weight of whole kafircorn fed to steers was re-
covered from the dung, practically unaffected
by the digestive juices. It is true that hogs
following steers fed whole kafircorn will put
most of it to good use, but steers being fattened
should be at more profitable work than pre-
digesting kafirecorn for hogs. Coarsely ground
kafircorn contains 5.79 percent. digestible pro-
tein and 56.54 percent. digestible carbohydrates
and fat. Average corn meal contains 6.13 per-
cent. digestible protein and 74.36 percent. di-
gestible carbohydrates and fat. Average
analyses of kafircorn show that it contains a
total of 11.2 percent. protein and 3.1 percent.
fat; Indian corn contains a total of 10.4 per-
cent. protein and 5.0 percent. fat.

24. For horses, kafircorn heads may entirely
take the place of corn. The heads may be fed
without grinding, but the feed is improved by
running the heads through feed cutters which
will cut them into quarter to half-inch pieces.
The ration is improved by the addition of a
limited amount of bran, shorts, or cottonseed
meal, but this is not necessary if the horses have
alfalfa, cowpea, or peanut hay. (81) It is de-
sirable, however, when prairie hay is fed.

25. As feed for calves, kafircorn meal fed dry
has been shown by the Kansas Experiment
Station to be well suited to feed with skimmilk.
Kafircorn meal has a tendency to constipate

20 SURE FEED CROPS

animals to which it is fed and this overcomes
the scouring effect of the skimmilk.

26. For fattening steers, ground kafircorn
may entirely take the place of Indian corn. Ex-
cellent results have been obtained when ground
kafircorn was fed with enough alfalfa hay or
cottonseed meal to balance the ration. The re-
sults are not as satisfactory when ground kafir-
corn is fed alone and kafir or corn stover,
prairie or sorghum hay, is used for rough feed.
Comparisons of corn meal and kafircorn meal
made at the Kansas Experiment Station, where
some alfalfa hay was fed, showed ground kafir-
corn to be worth only 7 percent. less than ground
corn for fattening steers. Beginning in 1899,
the Oklahoma Experiment Station made a series
of feeding experiments to ascertain the com-
parative value of corn meal, kafir meal, alfalfa
hay, and kafir stover as beef producers. The
trials were repeated three times. In the last
vear of the experiment, corn meal and alfalfa
hay produced an average daily gain per steer
of 2.39 pounds. Each pound of gain required
seven pounds of corn and six pounds of alfalfa
hay. The steers fed ground kafircorn and al-
falfa hay made a dailv gain of 2.36 pounds each
and each pound of gain required seven and one-
third pounds of grain and six and one-half
pounds of alfalfa hay.

27. Fed to dairy cows, kafircorn should al-
ways be ground and it is especially important

THE GRAIN 21

that something be fed to balance the ration and
overcome the constipating tendency of the kafir-
corn. Alfalfa, cowpea, or peanut hay is excel-
lent for this purpose and when they are on
hand, no feed need be purchased. If ordinary
roughness is fed, the grain ration should con-
sist of two-thirds ground kafircorn and one-
third bran or shorts; or three-fourths ground
kafircorn and one-fourth cottonseed meal. It is
wasteful to feed unground kafircorn to cattle
of any sort, and especially to dairy cows. The
grain need not be threshed before grinding.
Ordinary sweep mills, with proper attachments,
will grind kafireorn heads just as they grind
corn. Ground kafircorn heads are entirely satis-
factory for all classes of cattle, but the ration
should always be balanced with alfalfa, cowpea,
or peanut hay, or cottonseed meal.

28. Growing pigs should be fed alfalfa, cow-
pea, or peanut hay, or shorts in addition to
kafircorn heads, or ground kafircorn, which
should be moistened before feeding. Kafircorn
heads should be fed on a slightly sloping floor
so that the refuse will be worked to one side.
As an exclusive ration, kafircorn will not take
the place of corn in pig feeding. Kafircorn con-
_ tains less oil than corn, and pigs fed exclusively
on ground kafircorn quickly become constipated
and get out of condition. This trouble may be
entirely avoided by balancing the ration with
home-grown feeds which are rich in protein.
(150, 172, 184.)

22 SURE FEED CROPS

29. For fattening hogs, ground kafircorn or
ground kafircorn heads may practically take
the place of corn, though the addition of some-
thing to balance the ration is desirable and
profitable. There is nothing better than alfalfa,
cowpea, or peanut hay for this purpose. There
is less waste if the hay is eut into short lengths
before feeding, but the cheapest gains will come
from feeding the hay in low racks where the
hogs can get at it without wasting it. At the
Oklahoma Experiment Station, one lot of 115
pound shoats was fed what cowpea hay the pigs
would eat in addition to a mixture of one-half
kafircorn meal and one-half corn meal. They
consumed four and three-fourths pounds of
grain for each pound of gain. Another lot fed
the same kind of grain but no cowpea hay con-
sumed eight and one-fifth pounds of grain for
each pound of gain. The lot receiving cowpea
hay had better appetites, ate more grain, and
made much better gains than the lot which did
not receive cowpea hay.

If none of these hays is to be had, cottonseed
meal, if judiciously fed, may profitably be used.
Five pounds per day of ground kafircorn heads
with one-half to one pound of cottonseed meal
will make a good ration for a hundred-pound
hog. In a trial at the Oklahoma Experiment
Station, pigs fed a ration of four-fifths ground
kafireorn and one-fifth cottonseed meal made a
daily gain of 1.28 Ibs. each, using 3.19 lbs. of
grain costing 1.72 cents to produce a pound of

THE GRAIN 23

gain. At the same time, other pigs fed a ration
of one-half ground kafircorn and one-half corn
meal made a daily gain of 1.04 lbs. each, using
5.71 Ibs. of grain costing 2.55 cents for each
pound of gain. (84.)

30. As poultry feed, no single grain is supe-
rior to kafircorn. It need not be ground, except
for chicks. It does not tend to fatten hens
rapidly as corn does and consequently is a
better egg-producer. Much of the kafircorn
which is marketed is used in the preparation of
poultry feed and its use for this purpose is
rapidly increasing.

31. Kafircorn makes good silage. O. E. Reed
of the dairy department of the Kansas Agricul-
tural College says: ‘‘For silage, kafircorn is
better than cane but not as good as corn. Kafir-
corn ranks between the two in food value, acre-
age yield, and effect on the soil. Its special
advantages over corn are that it is more drouth-
resisting and yields higher. It generally yields
about seven tons to the acre.’’ Other points in
kafircorn’s favor are: it is practically certain to
produce a crop of grain and forage, corn may
not do so in very dry seasons; the plant remains
green long after the grain is mature, thus giv-
ing a longer time during which the silo may
be filled; the corn plant dies quickly after the
ear is formed; kafircorn is more conveniently
handled by corn binders and ensilage cutters.

32. Kafircorn smut sometimes reduces the

24 SURE FEED CROPS

yields. It is different from corn smut and may
be prevented by treating the seed with a solu-
tion composed of one pound of formaldehyde to
thirty gallons of water. With this strength of
solution, the seed should be soaked for one hour
and then dried. It takes about four and one-
half gallons of this solution to treat one bushel
of seed and the treatment costs about five cents
per bushel. At the Kansas Experiment Station,
untreated seed produced about thirty percent.
of smutted heads while treated seed produced
no smut whatever.

33. Kafircorn blight is popularly supposed to
be caused by rain washing the pollen from the
heads while in bloom. The Bureau of Plant
Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, has
recently reported the results of investigation of
grain-sorghum production in the San Antonio
region of Texas. The results indicate that the
blasting of heads of kafircorn is due to the work
of the sorghum midge instead of to rains while
the plants are in bloom. The experiments also
showed that when kafireorn is planted early, it
has a much hetter chance of escaping this
trouble than if planted late. Relatively little
loss has been caused by blight of kafircorn,
especially where it is treated as a real crop
instead of an afterthought.

34. Kafircorn seed may be selected and im-
proved more easily than can seed corn. The
entire plant, including the head, may be taken

THE GRAIN 25

into account when selecting kafircorn seed.
Plump, well-filled heads, borne by sturdy stalks
of uniform height should be selected after the
crop is fully matured. These should be hung
up in a dry and well-ventilated place and the
grain should be left on the heads until just
before planting time. Tall stalks which appear
in the field should be removed before they
bloom. These show a mixture with broom corn,
sorghum, milo, and other related varieties and
are even more undesirable than a mixture of
grains of different colors in Indian corn. The
Oklahoma Experiment Station, by continued
selection, developed a strain of blackhull white
kafircorn having much larger grain than the
kind usually grown, and still retaining all of
the other desirable characters of the crop. Many
farmers have also, by continued selection,
worked similar improvements in the kafircorn
which they grow.

35. ‘*Kafircorn ruins the land’’ is probably
the most frequently offered excuse for not grow-
ing kafircorn. Many farmers who carefully
located their feed lots and barns near the head
of a draw, so that a heavy rain will haul out the
manure, say that they will not plant kafircorn
‘because it will ruin the land.’? When urged to
plant kafircorn, they seem suddenly to become
much concerned about maintaining the fertility
of their soils. Recent analyses published by the
Oklahoma Experiment Station show that a crop
of thirty bushels of kafircorn removes from the

26 SURE FEED CROPS

soil 32.9 lbs. nitrogen, 6.5 lbs. potash, and 10.4
ibs. phosphoric acid; a crop of thirty bushels of
corn removes 30.7 lbs. nitrogen, 6.8 lbs. potash,
and 11.0’lbs. phosphoric acid. The differences
are so slight that they amount to nothing. But
since in 1911, kafircorn on the farm of the Okla-
homa Experiment Station yielded fifty-six
bushels per acre while Indian corn alongside
yielded nothing, there is no question in this
instance about kafircorn removing more of the
elements of plant-food than Indian corn did.

36. Kafircorn dries out the soil because of its
extensive root system and the fact that it con-
tinues growing until killed by frost. Corn dies
while kafircorn still finds enough moisture in
the soil to keep it in good condition for growth
when rains come. Corn is dead in August or
September and quits taking moisture from the
soil. Kafircorn keeps on growing until killed by
a freeze and usually leaves the soil very dry in
November. Land which grew kafircorn, unless
it is sandy, should all be plowed before Christ-
mas. The effect of the thorough drying of the
soil can be overcome by turning the land over
and giving the frosts of winter a chance to
break it up so that it may absorb and hold the
rain which falls. Many farmers in Butler
county, Kansas, insist that kafircorn actually
improves the soil. There are fields on which
kafircorn has followed kafircorn for fifteen years
without any reduction of yield. But on this
land, the kafireorn is headed high and the fodder

THE GRAIN 27

is turned under early in the winter. The de-
cayed vegetable matter has improved the phy-
sical condition of the soil so that the remova)
of the plant food by the successive crops of
grain has not yet been noticed on the yields.
Kafircorn should be rotated with other crops,
such as oats, cowpeas, peanuts, and cotton.
With proper attention given to early and thor-
ough preparation of land which has grown a
crop of kafircorn, its fancied ill effects upon the
soil fertility will disappear.

37. Actual experience in the growing of any
crop under the varying conditions of farm prac-
tice finally determines its place in a system of
farming. Kafircorn is actually being grown,
marketed, and fed with profit by many thou-
sands of farmers in the Central Southwest.
Brief statements from a few of them, relating
their experiences in 1911, follow:

38. Washita County, Western Oklahoma. ‘‘I
have been planting kafircorn for three years and
expect to continue planting it and to increase
the acreage each year. I have my barn full
of kafirecorn heads now and it looks good to
me.’’

“*‘T ‘have lived here eleven years and have
tried all of this time to grow Indian corn. Made
two good crops of corn, three short crops, from
ten to twenty bushels per acre, mostly trash and
smut, and six complete failures. In all of these
eleven years, I have never seen a failure of

28 SURE FEED CROPS

kafirecorn. It has always produced a crop, wher-
ever it had any show at all, and I have never
seen any kind of a crop respond more readily to —
good land and good cultivation than kafircorn
does.’’

39, Custer County, Western Oklahoma. ‘‘T
have been in the state only since December 1,
1909, and got my lesson with Indian corn the
first year. If it had not been for about twenty
acres of kafircorn which I planted that year, I
could not have pulled through. One acre of my
kafirecorn made more than all my crop of corn.
In 1911, — had fifty-seven acres of kafircorn and
milomaize and, regardless of the extreme drouth
and torrid winds, it made good yields. I am
billed for kafircorn, milomaize, cowpeas, and
alfalfa and, unless my wife does the planting,
we will not have a patch of roasting ears. The
old-timers here call me a ‘kafircorn wooly’ and
J am vroud of the name.’’

- 40. Kiowa County, Western Oklahoma. ‘‘I
planted some kafircorn in April and May, 1911.
In July, after it began raining, I planted two
hundred acres more to kafircorn and milomaize.
Jt made so much feed that I had to come to the
Oklahoma City stockyards to buy steers to eat
it. They weighed 700 lbs. and cost me $4.48
in October. They were fed this kafir and milo
with just enough alfalfa and cottonseed cake to
provide lubrication. On March 19, 1912, they
weighed 1060 lbs. at the Oklahoma City stock-

THE GRAIN 29

yards and sold for $6.25, topping the market for
that weight. I’ll have to grow kafircorn for a
few years before I can afford to make any more
attempts to prove that I live in a ‘great corn
country’. After this, my corn acreage will be
limited to a roasting ear patch.’’

‘‘Tn 1911 from fifty-five acres of sod kafircorn,
I raised 1590 bushels of threshed grain. All the
attention this had was to break the sod about
three inches deep in March, and in April to
plant three and one-half bushels of kafircorn
with an ordinary two-horse planter. It was cut
in September with a corn binder. The total
expense of planting, cutting, and shocking was
$104.50. Figure the crop of 1590 bushels at
sixty cents, $954. Deducting $75 for threshing
and $104.50 for other expenses leaves a net re-
turn of $774.50 and enough roughness out of the
stalks to last a natural lifetime.’’

41. Woods County, Western Oklahoma. ‘‘I
have finally got around to the conclusion that
kafircorn is the only grain for this part of Okla-
homa. As long as I remain sane and live here,
I shall waste but little time on corn. It is hard
to give up, but these hot winds are too much
for it. Even moisture and the best of cultiva-
tion are no guarantee of a crop of corn.”’

42. Dewey County, Western Oklahoma. ‘‘I
had fifteen acres of kafircorn in 1911 which
made twenty-five bushels per acre. Thirty acres
of corn in the same field made about six bushels

30 SURE FEED CROPS

per acre. I shall put out another fifteen acre
‘accident insurance policy’ of kafircorn each
year hereafter.’’

43. Texas County, Western Oklahoma. ‘‘To
satisfy my curiosity, I measured out one bushel
of kafircorn and kept it before my chickens
until consumed. During the period, exactly one
week, twenty-three laying hens laid eighty-one
eggs, worth eighty-one cents on the market.
That looks good, considering that the top price
paid for kafircorn here this year has been sixty-
two cents. But there were also twenty-eight
early hatched pullets that helped consume the
kafireorn. Most of them had recently been
bought and were not used to grain except what
they rustled from a milomaize field. The pul-
lets must have also added considerable weight
to their poor frames; at any rate, they con-
sumed much of the grain.”’

44, Woodward County, Western Oklahoma.
‘‘T have raised kafircorn for eleven years and
have always found a market for all I had to
spare. Kafircorn surely gave this country a
lift in 1911. There was a large acreage, on
account of the failure of wheat, and the yields
were from thirty to fifty bushels per acre. I
raised about 1600 bushels:’’

45, Kay County, Central Oklahoma. ‘‘You
advised planting ten acres of kafireorn. Why |
did you not say one hundred? Kafircorn has
never failed since I have been here. An aver-

THE GRAIN 31

age acre of kafircorn will make more beef or
pork in Oklahoma than an average acre of
corn will in the north. And it will make five
to ten times as many eggs.”’

46. Pawnee County, Central Oklahoma.
‘“Where kafircorn and milomaize were planted
at the right time in 1911, they made good yields.
My own made from sixty to seventy-five bushels
per acre. Corn in the same field did not make
over two bushels per acre.’’

47. Lincoin County, Central Oklahoma. ‘‘I
plant plenty of other stuff for feed so that I
will not need the kafircorn stalks. As soon as
the heads are ripe, I cut them off with a tree
pruner. As soon as I am through heading, I
plow the green stalks under good and deep. I
first tried this on a five-acre piece which I con-
sidered the poorest spot on the farm, but it
made forty bushels of Indian corn to the acre
the next year. If it had not been for kafircorn
in 1911, I would have been compelled to dispose
of all my pure-bred Berkshire hogs, but I have
been able to keep the best of them.’’

48. Kingfisher County, Central Oklahoma. ‘‘T
have been in Oklahoma three years; came from
Canada. I have been trying to raise corn but
have not been very successful. J had one hun-
dred and thirty acres the first year and it aver-
aged about four bushels; the next year fifty
acres which averaged ahout eight bushels; sixty

32 SURE FEED CROPS

acres in 1911 and it made a total crop of about
sixty bushels. I have three hundred acres for
crops in 1912, and will have one hundred and
forty acres of wheat, twenty-five of oats, ten
of cotton, fifteen of corn, and the rest in kafir-
a There will not be much corn for me after
tas.””

49. Osage County, Central Oklahoma. ‘‘ When
the dry weather came on in 1911, we saw that
we were going to lose the corn crop. I relisted
the ground and planted one hundred and fifty
acres to kafircorn. This made an average of
forty bushels per acre and was sold for fifty
cents a bushel. You can see that hereafter,
kafircorn will always be good enough for me.”’

50. Murray County, Eastern Oklahoma. ‘‘ We
never had much experience with kafircorn or
milomaize until in 1911 when we got all kinds
of experience. Much of the corn and stubble
land was planted at different dates, ranging
from May 20 to August 20. Kafircorn planted
in May yielded about twenty bushels per acre.
Milomaize didn’t yield as much grain as kafir-
corn and made much less fodder. Corn was a
complete failure.’’

51. Johnston County, Eastern Oklahoma.
‘‘Last spring I asked you about planting kafir-
corn and milomaize and you gave me what I’ve
found to be facts. I told you then that I in-
tended to plant thirty acres of kafircorn and am

THE GRAIN 33

kicking myself for not doing it. I planted only
twelve acres and it made good.’’

52. LeFlore County, Eastern Oklahoma. ‘‘I
planted five acres of kafircorn on oats stubble
and it was fine; thin land too. I got more from
it than from three crops of oats.’’

MILOMAIZE

53. The value of milomaize and its final place
among the crops grown in regions of limited
and variable rainfall have not been determined
as fully as for kafirecorn. The crop is of more
recent introduction, having first been grown in
the United States about 1885. Many farmers
in the Central Southwest got their first experi-
ence with both kafireorn and milomaize in the
very dry season of 1911. After all else had
failed, these crops were planted in July and
early August. It is but natural that many
should use the comparative returns from these
crops, planted late and under unfavorable con-
ditions, as a basis for determining which crop
to plant on at least a portion of the land usually
planted to corn. Because late planted milo-
maize generally matured more grain than kafir-
corn planted on the same dates, many jumped to
the conclusion that milomaize is a more satis-
factory crop than kafircorn.

54. Both crops have their place and the writer
has given much attention to determining the

34 SURE FEED CROPS

conditions under which one is to be preferred to
the other. For fifteen years, and especially
throughout the season of 1911, information
bearing upon this has been gathered by cor-
respondence and personal investigation. In the
fall of 1911, the entire matter was gone over
with W. D. Bentley, G. L. Bishop, and F. F.
Ferguson, agents of the farmers’ co-operative
demonstration work of the U. 8S. Department
of Agriculture, who travel constantly over
Oklahoma, inspecting the work of county
agents and visiting farmers who are striving
to improve their methods.

55. The grain crop to replace all or a portion
of the corn, if it is to attain much importance,
must be planted at about the same time that
corn is usually planted. There is an interval
of about a month between the time corn and
cotton are planted, approximately April 15 to
May 15 in Oklahoma. Planted between these
dates, kafircorn is more resistant to drouth than
milomaize. In 1911, early planted kafircorn
generally matured a good crop while much of
the milomaize planted at the same time died.
Many instances were reported where milomaize
heads had blasted in the boot, like corn tassels,
while kafireorn merely stopped growing and
waited for rain.

56. Harvesting with machinery is necessary
in order that any grain crop may become of
commercial importance. Kafircorn may be

THE GRAIN oD

harvested with machinery in common use, such
as wheat binders, headers and header binders,
wagon box kafircorn headers, and corn har-
vesters. Milomaize, even under the best con-
ditions, is not easily harvested by machinery
and if planted early, is usually very difficult to
gather. A close examination of fields of these
two crops will make this difference very clear.
Very few men would choose the job of harvest-
ing one hundred acres of milomaize instead of
a like acreage of kafircorn. And these few
wouldn’t do it again.

57. Milomaize matures grain in a shorter
time than is required by kafircorn. This char-
acteristic makes it more desirable than kafir-
corn for regions with high altitude and short
growing seasons. Where the average annual
rainfall is less than twenty-five inches, milo-
maize is preferred as a grain crop. In those
localities, the crop is usually planted in June.
If planted earlier, milomaize will furnish early
erain feed for hogging down. Where the aver-
age annual rainfall is between twenty-five and
forty inches, milomaize may be planted on
wheat or oats stubble immediately after har-
vest. Kafircorn resists the work of chinch bugs
better than milomaize and if the bugs are pres-
ent in the stubble, the former is safer, even for
late planting.

58. Dwarf yellow milomaize is the variety
most generally grown. It generally yields fully

36 SURE FEED CROPS

as much and is harvested more easily than the
standard yellow variety. Careful selection of
seed is required to maintain the dwarf habit.
The number of stalks bearing the head erect
instead of on a crooked shank may also be in-
creased by planting seed from erect heads or
by close planting. A white variety of milomaize
is also grown to a limited extent but its value
in comparison with the yellow variety has not
been determined. A farmer in Beckham county,
Western Oklahoma, reported: ‘‘I had two
plats planted to white milomaize last year and
they made forty-one bushels per acre. Some
kafircorn and yellow milomaize were also raised
and they made good yields. The men who raised
them have plenty of feed and are selling it to
those whe raise cotton and plant corn.’’

59. A uniform product is more desirable if
the grain is to be put on the market. If dif-
ferent farmers on the same day offer to the
buyer one load of blackhull white kafircorn, one
load of red kafircorn, one load of yellow milo-
maize, one load of white milomaize, one load of
‘‘fodderinktum,’’ one load of ‘‘buncoita,’’ and
several loads of miscellaneous mixtures and
crosses of these with each other and with broom
corn and different varieties of sweet sorghum,
the market is apt to go off. This can be shipped
only as mixed stuff, no grade, and will bring
low prices in comparison with what would have
been obtained if full cars of either blackhull

THE GRAIN 37

white kafireorn, or of yellow milomaize had
been shipped.

60. Methods of growing milomaize differ but
little from those used in growing kafircorn.
(12-16) Thorough and early preparation of the
soil and killing the weeds before planting pays
well. If the crop is to be planted after wheat
or oats are harvested, the stubble should be
disked as the crop is cut. As soon as possible,
milomaize should be planted in shallow lister
furrows at about the same distance between
plants as for kafireorn. (15) Frequent, shal-
low cultivations should be given until the crop
is well along toward maturity.

61. When a corn crop fails completely, as it
did over much of Oklahoma in 1911, milomaize
may yet produce good yields of grain. A
farmer in Tulsa county, Eastern Oklahoma, re-
ported: ‘‘I have a good bottom farm; raised
from fifty to sixty-five bushels of corn to the
acre with the exception of 1901 and 1911. I
made twenty-five bushels per acre in 1901 and
the hot winds cooked one hundred and twenty
acres for me in 1911. I cut the corn off of
forty acres and disked the land good. On July
19, I began planting milomaize. It came up
and grew fine; cultivated it three times. When
the seed began hardening, we cut and shocked
twenty acres; we headed the other twenty
acres and it made better than fifty bushels per
acre. The eighty acres of corn left made from

38 SURE FEED CROPS

three to twenty bushels per acre on better land.’’
But July cannot always be depended upon to
have sufficient rainfall to make this practicable
every season.

62. Harvesting milomaize is usually done by
cutting the heads off by hand. The irregular
height of the stalks and their tendency to sprawl
around, and the crooked stem on which the
head is borne, make heading by machinery dif-
ficult. But milomaize may be headed as cheaply
as corn can be husked. Since the fodder of
milomaize is of but little value, heading is
usually put off until after frost. The heads are
thus fully matured and cure out readily, though
it is well to take the same precautions as with
kafircorn to prevent heating. (20-21.)

63. Markets for milomaize are becoming es-
tablished, the same as for kafirecorn. But the
best market for both of these crops is livestock
to consume them on the farm which produced
them. Milomaize may be threshed with the
usual machinery and the methods are in gen-
eral the same as for kafircorn. (21.)

64. For feeding, milomaize has about the same
value as kafirecorn. It has not been studied so
fully by the experiment staions but there is a
large accumulation of the results of practical
experience. Average analyses show that milo-
maize contains 10.7 percent. protein and 2.8
percent. fat. (23) The grains being larger

THE GRAIN 39

than kafircorn, grinding is not so essential and
this is one of the chief points of preference by
those farmers who grow milomaize instead of
kafircorn for feed for their own stock. While
desirable, it is not so necessary that a ration of
milomaize be balanced with other feeds, as is
the case with kafircorn. (24-30) <A Tulsa
county, Eastern Oklahoma, farmer summed up
his experience briefiy: ‘“Milomaize is as good
feed as corn to feed whole to horses and nearly
as good as corn for hogs. For poultry it is the
best feed that grows, but for cattle, it should be
cracked.’’

65. ‘‘Horses doing heavy work should be
given three feeds of milomaize a day,’’ says H.
M. Cottrell, Agricultural Commissioner, Rock
Island Lines. ‘‘It is usually fed in the head,
one-half more heads being given than would be
fed of ears of corn. Most teamsters prefer to
feed milomaize in the head, cutting the stem off
close. The main stem of the head and the many
little stems with the seed attached force the
horse to do a large amount of chewing before
the grain can be swallowed, and this mastica-
tion grinds the grain and mixes it with the
saliva, increasing the proportion digested.
Ground milomaize makes a good horse feed.
Horses and mules have stood well hard work
all summer, such as breaking prairie, with no
grain but milomaize.’’

66. Laxative feeds, rich in protein, such as

40 SURE FEED CROPS

skimmilk, alfalfa, cowpeas, and peanut hays
and cottonseed meal, add to the returns obtained
from feeding milomaize, either whole or ground.
Ground milomaize is excellent for feeding to
skimmilk calves, the starch of the milomaize re-
placing in feeding value the fat removed from
the whole milk by skimming. It is not neces-
sary to grind milomaize to be fed to hogs. For
cattle, the grain may be fed in the head but re-
turns will be better if the heads or the threshed
grain are ground.

67. Experience of growers and feeders of
milomaize on the farms of the Central South-
west is a reliable guide for others not accus-
tomed to growing the crop. Conditions vary
widely and general conclusions strictly ap-
plicable to one locality may not entirely apply
to others. For that reason, the location of the
jaan making the report is given in what fol-
OWS:

68. Kiowa County, Western Oklahoma. ‘‘You
requested us to report on the relative drouth-
resistance of milomaize and kafircorn. I find
that the latter stood the drouth of 1911 best.
When the rains came on the fifth of July, the
kafircorn was still standing and waiting to pro-
duce a good crop while milomaize seemed too
old to head well. These were planted the last
days in April.’’

69. Major County, Western Oklahoma. ‘‘In

THE GRAIN 41

1912, I shall plant at least one hundred acres of
kafircorn but no milomaize. I had both in 1911,
but the milomaize isn’t in it at all. I found that
it was extra good for chinch bugs, while they
didn’t harm the kafircorn.’’

70. Lincoln County, Central Oklahoma. *‘in
July, 1911, I planted all of my oats stubble and
other idle land to milomaize. It all matured and
made a good crop. If all farmers had done the
same, there would have been enough feed for
all of Oklahoma without shipping any in from
other states.’’

FETERITA.

BY GEORGE BISHOP.

71.-—-Feterita, as a crop for the certain pro-
duction of grain for feed, has made such a fine
showing over Western Oklahoma and other
parts of the Southwest that it seems destined
to fill a permanent place in the family of sure
feed crops for farmers of the Plains country.
Feterita is really a competitor of milo and is far
superior for production to any of the mongrel
strains which have been grown on most of the
farms of the mid-western country. Nothing but
the pure dwarf milo and pure dwarf kafir can
compete with it in production when extremes of
drouth have to be overcome. Reports coming
from the Amarillo, Texas, Experiment Station
show that in a six years’ test, feterita has out-
yielded their milo but one year. This was so

42 SURE FEED CROPS

contrary to results shown in Western Oklahoma
and other parts of the West that a special trip
was made to determine the reason. The cause
was found to be that the milo used at the Experi-
ment Station was a carefully-selected, high-
yielding strain of dwarf, early red or yellow
dwarf. Until the farmers of the Plains country
get more of the early dwarf milo, they may
expect feterita to be their best yielding grain
crop on dry years.

72.—As soon as feterita matures one head—
if it has moisture enough left, or if rains come—
it begins with another crop of sucker heads from
the side of the stalk. This makes it top-heavy
and causes it to lodge badly if winds come.
The erect head makes it more convenient to
harvest by hand than milo, if it does not grow
too tall or fall down before you harvest it.
Heads cut too green and put in bulk will heat
quickly. The fact that it has a large, soft grain
makes it a crop suited especially for the cotton
farmer who wants just enough to have grain for
his team and to fatten a few hogs. It fits the
needs of the small farmer who needs more grain,
but is not equipped to thresh or grind. Feterita
may be made to fill all the requirements of a
grain feed or a finish feed for hogs, without
doing anything more to it than you would to
an ear of corn. It will very likely show to have

THE GRAIN 43

a feed value about the same as that of milo or
kafircorn. Some reports from farmers claim
that it is not as good. The analysis shows it
to be from one to two per cent. below milo and
kafir in protein content. This crop belongs out
West, where the crop is not so much a matter of
choice as a matter of production. And so long
as its ability to produce is enough greater than
other and perhaps more desirable crops, it will
be a good plan to stay on the safe side of having
grain for feed every year by planting some
feterita.

73.—Feterita is the quickest and surest
catch crop for grain production that we
have as yet found in the West. Nothing is
gained by planting feterita early in the spring
unless early feed is desired. Never plant it be-
fore cotton planting time where cotton is grown.
Plant it thin. Stalks two feet apart is not too
thin. It suckers enough then to make it too
thick. Thinner planting seems to make a
stockier stalk to stand up and wait for harvest.
Feterita will undoubtedly make good ensil-
age. Varying reports have come from those
having used it for ensilage. Do not grow it for
ensilage where kafir will produce, but if kafir
might not make the yield, plant feterita to fill
the silo. Feterita is earlier than the common
milo and twenty to thirty days earlier than the

44 SURE FEED CROPS

standard kafir. It has the natural drouth re-
sistance of kafircorn, and when this is combined
with its earliness, it makes a wonderfully sure
crop.

74. **Desert wheat,’’ sometimes called
‘‘Higyptian wheat,’’ ‘‘Mexican wheat,’’ or
‘wheat corn,’’ is one of the ‘‘three much mis-
represented sorghums’’ about which the U. S.
Department of Agriculture has issued a
Farmers’ Bulletin. Of it, Professor A. M. Ten
Kiyck of Kansas said: ‘‘The tests of this crop
at this station indicate that it is not so valuable
as sorghum or kafircorn either for fodder or for
grain. The yields of the grain have been less
than the yields of kafircorn, and the crop is
objectionable because the stems are usually very
slender and the crop lodges badly and is hard
to harvest. In my judgment, seedsmen are sell-
ing it at a high price simply because it is a
novelty, or not well known.”’

COTTONSEED PRODUCTS

75. Cottonseed is a sure feed crop not
fully appreciated in any of the states which
grow cotton. Oklahoma alone, in 1911, pro-
duced more than 500,000 tons of cottonseed.
But because of the tendency of the cotton crop
to dominate and almost to drive out other lines
of agriculture, resulting in very limited num-
bers of livestock on farms which grow cotton,

THE GRAIN 45

most of this valuable feedstuff, in the form of
cottonseed meal and cottonseed cake, was
shipped to northern, eastern, and HKuropean
feeders. This great economic waste is caused
by the failure of cotton growers of the south-
western states to grow the sure feed crops with
. which to make a properly balanced ration of
cottonseed meal and thus obtain and retain the
full value of the grain crop produced along with
the lint of cotton.

76. Cottonseed should be sold to the cotton oil
mills and cottonseed meal should be bought
back from the mills and fed, whenever prices
bear their proper relation to actual feed values.
Cottonseed oil has a much higher commercial
value than feeding value and is present in ex-
cessive amounts in cottonseed. The exchange
value of cottonseed for cottonseed meal and
the relative economy of feeding one or the other
depends upon the kind of animal to be fed and
the rough feed which is available. Approxi-
mately, a ton of cottonseed has the same feed-
ing value as twelve hundred and fifty pounds
of cottonseed meal, but the actual returns ob-
tained from feeding a ton of cottonseed may fall
far below those secured from feeding twelve
hundred and fifty pounds of cottonseed meal,
properly balanced with kafircorn, milomaize, or
corn.

77. A ton of cottonseed produces about 300
pounds of oil, 800 pounds hulls, 750 pounds cot-

46 SURE FEED CROPS

tonseed meal, 30 pounds linters, and 120 pounds
waste and trash. The fertilizer constituents of
a ton of cottonseed are 63 pounds nitrogen, 23
pounds potash, and 25 pounds phosphoric acid,
worth not less than $12.85 if bought in the form
of commercial fertilizers. Cottonseed contains
12.5 percent. digestible protein and 17.3 per-
cent. digestible fat, and the difficulty in feeding
cottonseed lies in properly balancing this ex-
cessive amount of fat.

78. Cottonseed meal contains 37.6 percent.
digestible protein and 9.6 percent. digestible fat.
The fertilizer constituents of a ton of cotton-
seed meal are 113 pounds nitrogen, 36 pounds
potash, and 54 pounds phosphoric acid, costing
at least $21.45 if bought in the form of com-
mercial fertilizers.

79. Cottonseed hulls are produced in slightly
larger amount than cottonseed meal by the oil
mills. Cottonseed hulls contains 0.3 percent.
digestible protein and 1.7 percent. digestible
fat; for comparison, corn stover (fodder with
the ears removed) contains 1.4 percent. di-
gestible protein and 0.7 percent. digestible
fat. The fertilizer constituents of a ton of
cottonseed hulls are 13.4 pounds nitrogen, 20.8
pounds potash, and 8.6 pounds phosphoric acid,
costing $3.38 if bought as commercial fertilizer.
The most extended use to which cottonseed hulls
have been put is as roughage for short-fed

THE GRAIN 47

steers receiving cottonseed hulls and cotton-
seed meal as practically their sole ration.

80. Cottonseed may be fed profitably to stock
cattle being wintered on rough feed, the
amounts being limited to about two pounds per
day per head. This is about the only purpose
for which it is advisable to feed cottonseed in
preference to cottonseed meal or cake, and if
the roughage contains considerable grain, such
as kafircorn or milomaize, the feeding of small
amounts of meal or cake is likely to be more
generally satisfactory. Cottonseed should never
be fed to hogs. They may eat some of it and
get away with it if they have free range and
plenty of green feed, but some of them are
very likely to die. The feeding of any con-
siderable amount of cottonseed to cows makes
the butter hard and tallowy, and it is practically
impossible to compound a properly balanced
ration using any considerable amount of cotton-
seed.

81. For horses, cottonseed meal combined
with three to five times as much kafircorn, milo-
maize, or corn is an improvement over any of
these grains fed alone. But cottonseed meal
should not be fed to horses in larger amounts
than this and should never be fed as the sole
ration of any animal. A few experiment sta-
tions have used cottonseed meal as a part of
the feed for work horses and the results have
been generally satisfactory. Horses do not seem

48 SURE FEED CROPS

to like cottonseed meal, and the amount fed
per day should in no case be more than two
pounds.

82. For dairy cows, cottonseed meal is gen-
erally a very economical feedstuff. It should
never be fed alone. Three parts of ground
kafircorn, milomaize, or corn, mixed with one
part of cottonseed meal, at the usual prices,
makes a cheaper, and always a more effective
ration than any of these grains fed separately.
The excess of protein of the cottonseed meal is
balanced by the excess of starchy materials of
the kafirecorn, milomaize, or corn and both
classes of food materials are more fully utilized
by the cows. The ration should gradually be
increased to the amount which the different
cows will put to good use in the increased pro-
duction of milk. The certainty of production of
kafireorn, milomaize, and cottonseed meal in
seasons of extreme drouth, and their high feed-
ing value, make them of great value in main-
taining the stability of the dairy industry in
regions of variable rainfall. (27) Fed as sug-
gested, there is absolutely no danger to the
health of cows receiving cottonseed meal. In-
stead, their condition and production will stead-
ily improve because of their needs being sup-
plied with properly balanced food nutrients.

83. For fattening steers, cottonseed meal is
very satisfactory as a part of the ration. Nu-
merous feeding experiments have established

THE GRAIN 49

its value and determined the general manner
in which it should be used. Where the rough
feed consists of kafir, milo, or corn fodder,
sorghum or prairie hay, the grain ration should
consist of two parts ground kafir, milo, or corn
to one part of cottonseed mea]. If alfalfa or
cowpea hay constitutes a portion of the rough
feed, the proportion of cottonseed meal in the
grain ration may be reduced to one-fourth or
one-fifth for the most of the feeding period, and
increased to one-third toward the close. If kafir
or milo fodder or silage containing consider-
able grain is fed, cottonseed cake may be fed,
gradually increasing the amount to four pounds
per day per head. The fact always to be kept
in mind is that in feeding cottonseed meal or
cake to cattle of any class, they should receive
kafircorn, milomaize, or corn to balance the
ration. Where rough feed is abundant and con-
tains some grain, cottonseed meal or cake may
be fed without admixture with other grain, but
slower gains will be obtained. Unless the
roughage supplies grain, cottonseed meal should
not comprise more than one-third of the total
grain ration.

84. Hogs may follow cattle being fed cotton-
seed meal and will make profitable gains, es-
pecially if there are hogs enough to clean up
the droppings completely and to require a lit-
tle ground kafircorn, milomaize, or corn in
addition. This is the most satisfactory manner

50 SURE FEED CROPS

in which to feed cottonseed meal to hogs and
losses are very rare when this is the practice.
Cottonseed meal will not do at all as an exclu-
Sive grain ration for hogs, but it may be fed
with profit in amounts of from one-tenth to one-
fifth of the totai grain ration of fattening hogs.
Long continued fecding of larger amounts of
cottonseed meal to hogs frequently results in
losses and when there are the first symptoms
of trouble, it is well to drop the cottonseed meal
out of the ration for a week or two. Many
feeders sour the ration containing cottonseed
meal by soaking in water; others find that hogs
receiving wheat or rye pasture while on a ration
containing cottonseed meal are rarely troubled
from its effects. The feeder who will use cot-
tonseed meal judiciously in fattening hogs will
find it very profitable. The careless feeder,
who will not go to the trouble of taking the sim-
ple precautions necessary, is very likely to suf-
fer losses. A feeder in Washita county, West-
ern Oklahoma, reported: ‘‘I have never soaked
nor soured a pound of cottonseed meal before
feeding to hogs. I have fed cottonseed meal to
as high as one-fifth of the grain ration, usually
from a sixth to a tenth, for the last six years
and I have never lost a hog. In the spring of
1912, for a tail-end bunch I fed them for ninety
days on one-fifth cottonseed meal and ground
kafireorn. They had the run of a small wheat
pasture. Another man in Washita county fed
out two car loads in 1910, and a finer and better

THE GRAIN ol

finished bunch of hogs I never saw. He fed
them soaked corn and one-fifth cottonseed meal.
He soaked his corn separately and then put_it
in the trough and poured the cottonseed meal
over it. The hogs were all alfalfa-grown hogs.
He fed them sixty days and they gained two
pounds a day. Another Washita county feeder
in 1911 fed seven tons of cottonseed meal to
three cars of hogs at a ratio of about one to four
with corn. He fed seven hundred and fifty dol-
lars worth of feed and sold nineteen hundred
dollars worth of hogs. This man was induced to
try the meal after reading of the man who fed
the two carloads the year before. But before
he would risk the bunch, he visited the other
feeder and then went home and penned up a
few of the stringiest old sows he had to make
a test for himself. They made such fine gains
in so short a time without loss that he laid in a
supply of cottonseed meal and went after the
rest of his herd in earnest.’’ (29.)

85. As feed for calves, neither cottonseed nor
cottonseed meal is satisfactory. They do not
have the proper compesition to replace the fat
of milk removed by skimming. Ground kafir-
corn, milomaize, or corn is entirely satisfactory
for this purpose. (25.)

86. All of the cottonseed meal produced in
the states of the southwest should be fed here.
The plant food alone which it contains is worth
almost as much as it sells for. It contains the

o2 SURE FEED CROPS

nitrogenous material necessary to balance the
excess of starch contained in kafircorn and milo-
maize and its oil overcomes the slightly con-
stipating tendency of these feeds. The greatest
profit from these crops is obtained by feeding
them to livestock in the communities which pro-
duce them, thereby obtaining the higher prices
for the finished product, and retaining the ele-
ments of plant food to maintain the fertility of
the soil for the production of future crops. But
an abundance of cottonseed meal cannot be
utilized in the absence of production of kafir-
corn and milomaize, in years when corn is a
failure. And the fact that cottonseed meal is
one of the surest of feed crops is the reason for
including it in this discussion. It is a foolish
waste for the farmers of the south to continue
shipping their fertility to Europe, receiving in
return scarcely more than they pay for plant
food bought as commercial fertilizers. But they
ean escape from this waste only by the produc-
tion of other sure feed crops which will place
the livestock industry on a foundation from
which it cannot be dislodged by a season of
short rainfall and excessive temperatures.

THE FORAGE

ALFALFA

87. Alfalfa fully compensates for the uncer-
tainty of the corn crop in regions having a
variable annual rainfall averaging from twenty-
five to thirty-five inches. Within this belt in
Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, a larger pro-
portion of the total area than of any other part
of the earth’s surface of equal size is producing
alfalfa profitably. Texas contains a vast, un-
developed region of a similar character which
ultimately, there is every reason for believing,
will grow alfalfa fully as well. With the full
utilization of suitable soils in the production of
alfalfa, and appreciation of the certainty with
which kafircorn, milomaize, and cotton produce
grain for raising and fattening all classes of
livestock, the people of this region, who once
resented its being designated ‘‘semi-arid,’’ will
be proud to proclaim it as such.

88. Alfalfa is invulnerable, almost, to damage
from long-continued drouth when once firmly
established. In Oklahoma, the seasons of 1909
and 1910 were below the average in amount and
seasonable distribution of rainfall. The year

o3

54 SURE FEED CROPS |

following, 1911, surpassed all previous records
for unfavorable conditions. In September of
that year nearly all of the alfalfa fields in some
counties looked brown and almost bare of vege-
tation, and many feared that the alfalfa had
died. In April, 1912, after sufficient rains to
soak the soil and penetrate the subsoil to a
depth of perhaps five feet, not a single field of
alfalfa which was examined along fifty miles
of road, in a county where drouth had been most
severe, appeared noticeably damaged. Where
it had not been pastured, the alfalfa was then
standing from six to ten inches high. During
the years of drouth, it had produced more net
returns than any other crop. And when the
rains came, without expenditure of money, time
or effort, save perhaps to loosen the sun-baked
soil, alfalfa was ready to produce a crop in May
worth more money than the net returns from
other crops after an entire season’s labors. The
marvelous ability to withstand extremes of
drouth and heat which alfalfa has shown, when
once established, furnishes the strongest of rea-
sons for extending the acreage until it occupies
all suitable soils within this region where soil
and climate are so favorable for its growth.

89. Not all soils will grow alfalfa profitably
under ‘ordinary conditions of preparation of
the soil and care of the stand of alfalfa when
once secured. The most favorable soils are the
fertile, alluvial, and comparatively level lands

THE FORAGE 59

bordering the streams, above the overflow and
commorgly called ‘‘second bottom land.’’ The
best of these are those with a close surface soil
changing rapidly to a moderately open subsoil
into which the tap roots of alfalfa may easily
penetrate. When the subsoil is not of very
tough clay, with rock close to the surface, the
surface soil may even be quite sandy and, aside
from increased difficulty in obtaining a stand
which may be overcome by proper methods
which are discussed later, (98) be entirely sat-
isfactory for maximum alfalfa production.
The character of the soil rather than its loca-
tion with reference to streams determines its
natural adaptability to this crop and many wide
areas of such soil exist far removed from
streams.

90. Fertility of the soil is important in estab-
lishing alfalfa. It is established with difficulty,
for example, on soils which have been cropped
to wheat successively for many years until de-
ficient in available plant food, and especially in
available nitrogen. Sandy soils on which have
been grown clean culture crops, without re-
turning vegetable matter to the soil, until most
of the humus has disappeared are not in con-
dition for seeding to alfalfa. The ‘‘hard
lands’? which have been farmed for several
years without manuring until they have become
sticky and pasty, forming thick crusts after
rains and great cracks after drouths, are not
easily transformed into profitable alfalfa fields,

56 SURE FEED CROPS

While perhaps less than one-twentieth of the
total area of the states of the Central South-
west is land on which alfalfa may profitably be
grown on a large scale, on fully nine-tenths of
the farms is some land which, if given proper
preparation, will produce alfalfa at a profit for
the livestock of the farm.

91. A deep seed bed, but firm right up to the
surface; enough moisture in the soil to germi-
nate the seed and establish the plants without
rain; and good seed, free from weed seed and
sure to grow, are essential to obtaining a stand
of alfalfa. These conditions may be obtained
in various ways but are the fundamentals which
should always be kept in mind. Young alfalfa
plants are exceedingly tender and often must
combat conditions over which the farmer has
no control. This makes it all the more impor-
tant that close attention be given to those fac-
tors which can be controlled.

92. Stubble lands, from which a crop of wheat
or oats have been harvested in June, may be
put into excellent shape for sowing to alfalfa
between August 15th and September 20th, if
there is sufficient rainfall during that period.
Such land should be thoroughly disked just
after the grain is cut, the disk harrow follow-
ing the binder around the field. This saves the
moisture in the soil and breaks down the stub-
ble so that the soil turned over will pack read-
ily and make good connection with the bottom

THE FORAGE ay

of the furrow. Plowing should be done as soon
as possible. The depth of plowing should de-
pend on the previous depth to which the land
has been plowed. It is not desirable to turn
up more than an inch of the subsoil, but plow-
ing to a depth of less than six to eight inches is
poor preparation. Hach half-day’s plowing
should be gone over at once with a sub-surface
packer, or a heavily weighted disk harrow set
nearly straight, going along with the furrows.
Enough harrowings should be given to keep
down the weeds and grass and to prevent the
formation of a crust, but not enough to reduce
the surface soil to a powder which will blow
easily.

93. Do not disk land to be sown to alfalfa at
any time after it has been plowed and packed.
If harrowing has been neglected until a sod of
grass and weeds, or a hard crust, has formed,
the damage cannot be repaired by disking and
loosening the surface to a depth of three to five
inches. Perhaps this is the mistake most com-
monly made by those who have had no experi- |
ence with alfalfa. They have a notion that a
‘*deep, mellow seed bed’’ will be made by the
disk harrow and that alfalfa sown in such a
seed bed will start right off and grow. But
when sown after a disking, the alfalfa seed is
placed in a bed of dust or in soil full of air
spaces which dries out quickly, and unless rain

58 SURE FEED CROPS

sufficient to firm the soil about the alfalfa seed
falls very soon after sowing, failure results.

94. If land for corn was plowed deep, and the
corn was given clean cultivation which left it
level, and the crop is matured, cut as low as
possible, and removed from the land before
September Ist, good stands of alfalfa may be
obtained from sowing into the corn stalks.
Disking the stalks, unless heavy rains follow,
is likely to loosen the soil to too great a depth.
The stalks should be dragged down, using a
weighted section harrow thrown down flat; this
may not be necessary if the stubs are very
short. Harrowing enough to smooth out in-
equalities in the soil may sometimes be desir-
able but care should be taken not to destroy the
good seed bed which the cultivation of the corn
crop has prepared. (91) Exceptionally favor-
able conditions and careful work are requisites
for success in fall seeding of alfalfa after corn.

95. Fall seeding of alfalfa is more generally
successful than spring seeding east of the
thirty-five inch rainfall line, and is generally
preferred by alfalfa growers. In all cases, con-
ditions at the time when the sowing should be
done must determine whether to sow or to save
the seed and wait until spring. Unless the seed
bed is well settled and filled with moisture, so
that the sowing may be completed not less than
thirty days before the average date of the first

THE FORAGH 59

killing frost, it is safer to wait. The work of
preparation will not be lost; usually such land is
in the best of condition for early spring seed-
ing, if not spoiled by disking or plowing again.

96. Preparation for spring seeding should be-
gin at least a year before the time alfalfa is to
be sown. Weeds and grass should be killed out
by growing crops which assist in their eradica-
tion. If the land is to be planted to corn, cotton,
or other clean culture crops, it should first be
plowed deep and the work of the cultivator
should be supplemented with the hoe and no
weed seed should be permitted to mature. If
wheat or oats are to be followed the next spring
with alfalfa, a crop of cowpeas (169, 170) grown
on the stubble and pastured off or plowed under
will add to the fertility of the surface soil and
greatly improve the chances of success. The
plowing should be completed in all cases before
the last of December. If the soil is of the kind
which drifts with the winds, it may be well to
leave it rough. Methods must be modified to
suit soil conditions, but harrowing and firming
of the soil should be done so as to put the land
in condition before March 1st for seeding when
weather conditions become suitable.

97. The time of spring seeding cannot be fixed
by dates on the calendar. Just when to sow
must be determined by the temperature of the
soil and weather conditions. The earlier al-
falfa is sown after danger of hard freezes is

60 SURE FEED CROPS

past, the better the chances for success. Alfalfa
sown in March, if it escapes a freeze, will with-
stand drouth much better than later sowings.
This was well illustrated in the very unfavor-
able season of 1911 when practically the only
spring-sown alfalfa which came through with a
good stand was that sown in March. Alfalfa
sown in April has an unequal struggle with the
winds and weeds of spring, and if sown in May,
there is danger of damage from the dashing
rains. The later the sowing in the spring, the
more trouble there will be with weeds and grass.

98. Sandy lands comprise approximately one-
third of the area of Oklahoma. Not all are so
sandy that they blow, but there are wide areas
where it is very difficult to hold the soil in place
until crops are established. Methods of get-
ting alfalfa established on such soils are very
different from those necessary to success on
hard lands. With soils only moderately sandy,
and in regions where there is usually moisture
enough for fall seeding, plowing may be done
in June or July and the soil should be worked
down as firmly as possible. The danger of loss
then comes from the fall and winter winds.
Some have overcome the blowing by scattering
rotten straw with a manure spreader, just
thickly enough to stop the sweep of the winds
but not enough to smother the plants. It may
be necessary to press the straw into the soil
by running a disk harrow, set straight, over it.

THE FORAGE 61

Others have sown a small amount of sorghum,
kafircorn, or broom corn seed, or spring oats
with alfalfa in the fall. These come up, make
some growth in the fall, but are killed by frost.
The dead plants remain through the winter and
into spring, and protect the alfalfa plants from
the wind.

99. New land, if the soil is sandy, is better
for alfalfa than soil which has been farmed
without manuring until most of its vegetable
matter has disappeared. The sod, when chopped
up with a disk harrow, will hold the sand to-
gether until the alfalfa covers it.

100. Decayed vegetable matter, incorporated
with sandy soils, will help hold them in place
until alfalfa may be established. Some have
successfully followed the plan of sowing sor-
ghum on sandy soil in the spring and plowing
it under just before it heads. This decays
quickly and is followed with spring oats sown
early in September. This when frozen down
protects the surface of the soil and prevents
drifting. In March, alfalfa is sown into the
dead oats with a disk drill, disturbing the soil
cover as little as possible. These are a few of
the ways which have been tried with varying
results on very sandy lands. It taxes the pa-
tience and ingenuity of the man who is farm-
ing sandy land when he sets about getting a
stand of alfalfa. When once established, the
crop, however, is worth all of the perseverance

62 SURE FEED CROPS

necessary to obtain it. Where the sandy land
is reasonably level, with water ten to twenty feet
from the surface, permanent success with al-
falfa when once established is certain.

101. The amount of seed usually sown is
twenty pounds per acre. If conditions for sow-
ing are ideal and the alfalfa seed is perfect, ten
pounds to the acre is enough. That amount of
seed, if all of it grows, will make more plants
than there is room for. But it is rare that
everything is just right and fifteen pounds to
the acre is as little as it is advisable to sow
under average conditions. It is a waste of seed
to sew more than twenty pounds. The best
seed for sowing in the states of the Central
Southwest is that produced as near as possible
to the place where it is to be sown. Seed pro-
duced on irrigated land is not satisfactory.

102. Alfalfa seed should be tested for germi-
nation and examined for weed seed before pur-
chasing, if possible, and certainly before sow-
ing. The Experiment Stations, at Manhattan,
Kansas; Stillwater, Oklahoma; Fayetteville,
Arkansas; and College Station, Texas, make
these tests, usually without charge. An ounce
of the seed should be sent at least two weeks
before a report is needed. Neglect of this pre-
caution may .result in getting a troublesome ©
start of dodder and other pests along with the
alfaifa.

THE FORAGE 63

103. ‘‘ Alfalfa will not grow here’’ is an expres-
sion frequently heard by way of apology for
wasting fine alfalfa lands in growing wheat or
cotton, or trying to grow corn on them. A town-
ship in southern Oklahoma, along the Red River,
furnishes one example. It is a beautiful coun-
try, comparatively level, with excellent roads
and a sandy loam soil with a comparatively open
subsoil. Many farmers reported that alfalfa
‘does no good”’ there; that it had been tried
and died out. This is an old story and has been
repeatedly disproven after the men who farm
the land have learned how to grow alfalfa.
Farther west in Oklahoma, other communities
along the same river, with exactly similar con-
ditions, though not quite so favorable, have
found alfalfa the most profitable crop which
they can grow.

104. Thickening a thin stand of alfalfa is not
always easily done, and it is practically im-
possible after the stand is more than a year old.
If a satisfactory stand is not obtained from
spring seeding, it may be thickened by harrow-
ing or drilling in five to ten pounds of seed per
acre in September, and again early the follow-
ing March if the fall seeding failed to take hold.
In the same manner, an unsatisfactory stand of
alfalfa from fall seeding may be thickened by
sowing more seed early in March, giving a light
harrowing to cover. After alfalfa is more than
a year old, it is better to plow-up a poor stand

64 SURE FEED CROPS

and start over again, than to attempt to thicken
it by sowing seed.

105. Sowing alfalfa seed should be carefully
done. Drilling, with implements which may be
properly adjusted, permits the seed to be placed
at a definite depth in moist soil and completely
covered. This is especially important with
sandy soils. With firmer soils, broadcasting is
satisfactory. The soil should never be disked
just before sowing. Instead, if the soil is full
of moisture and a crust is just beginning to
form on the surface, it should be harrowed be-
fore broadcasting only enough to make dis-
tinct harrow marks and slightly break the crust.
Then a good cross harrowing after sowing will
place most of the seed in moist soil and cover
it to the proper depth. Alfalfa should not be
covered to a depth of more than an inch to an
inch and a half in such soils. If that depth of
covering will not put the seed in moist soil, con-
ditions are not right for sowing. In sandy soils,
the seed may be placed as deep as two to three
inches.

106. The care of young alfalfa is of vital im-
portance in establishing a stand. Weeds and
grass often interfere and, at times, choke out
the alfalfa before it becomes established. In
the absence of weeds, spring sown alfalfa should
not be clipped until it begins blooming or the
leaves begin turning yellow and dropping off.
The eutterbar of the mower should be set high.

THE FORAGE 65

If young alfalfa is clipped short in hot weather,
much of it may die before the buds have pushed
out new leaves. But if it is not cut when bloom-
ing begins or the leaves begin dropping, the
plants rapidly lose vitality. The treatment of
weedy alfalfa must vary with the kind of
weather and the kinds of weeds. Hnough cut-
tings should be inade to keep the young alfalfa
from being shaded out, but they should be made
at such times as are most likely to weaken the
weed growth. This may sometimes be done
when the weeds are in bloom. Crabgrass makes
the most trouble with alfalfa sown in the spring
and frequent mowings are necessary to give the
young alfalfa a chance at the sunlight. Alfalfa
sown in the fall, if a stand is obtained, is usually
' not much damaged by grass and weeds unless
the land is very foul. It pay always to kill out
weeds and grass before sowing alfalfa, rather
than to attempt it afterwards.

107. For hay, alfalfa should always be cut
when about one-tenth of the plants have come
into bloom, or the lower leaves begin turning
yellow and dropping off, or new growth begins
from the buds at the base of the stems. Cut at
this stage, the largest yield of digestible food
materials will be obtained and the largest total
crop through the season will be secured. When
alfalfa comes into full bloom before cutting,
many leaves are lost and the leaves are the most
valuable part of the crop. The stems also be-

66 SURE FEED CROPS

come woody and less of them are eaten; new
growth also starts more slowly from stems
which have partially matured. Many stands of
young alfalfa are weakened by ‘‘waiting for it
to get big enough to cut’’, after it has begun
blooming.

108. Methods of curing alfalfa hay must, of
necessity, vary greatly, depending upon the
amount of growth, moisture in the soil and air,
wind and sunshine. All steps taken should be
directed toward saving the greatest possible
amount of leaves. This can be accomplished by
keeping the plants alive and transpiring mois-
ture through the leaves for the longest possi-
ble time after cutting. Allowing to wilt in the
swath and to cure in windrows, formed prefer-
ably with a side-delivery rake, seems to be the
best general plan. West of the line of thirty
inches average annual rainfall, weather condi-
tions are often such that the problem is to get
the alfalfa raked and stacked before it has
dried out too thoroughly. It should not be put
up as long as juice may be squeezed from a
twisted bunch of stems. But it should not be
permitted to lie in the swath until most of the
leaves rattle off as it is raked. Every cutting
of a crop of alfalfa requires the good judgment
of the man in charge, working for the proper
condition of the product instead of blindly fol- —
lowing any set of rules. The fullest possible
.use should be made of machinery in handling

THE FORAGE 67

alfalfa, especially where there is any consider-
able acreage of it. Sheds for storing the hay,
and stack covers, quickly pay back their cost in
preventing damage from rains.

109. Cultivation of alfalfa needs to be done
with judgment and must vary greatly with the
character of the soil and the extent to which the
alfalfa has been pastured. The over-enthusias-
tic use of the disk harrow, while seeming to give
temporary benefit, has weakened many good
stands of alfalfa. An ordinary smoothing har-
row, weighted and set so that it will take hold,
may be used with profit before growth starts
in the spring on practically all alfalfa over one
year old. And it can scarcely be used so as to
do harm. If the soil is crusted or weeds and
grass are starting at any time immediately after
a crop has been cut, another harrowing will pay
in nearly all cases. Where firm soils have been
compacted by pasturing, judicious use of the
disk harrow just as growth is starting in the
spring is generally advisable. It will loosen
the soil, save moisture, and admit air to the soil
without which alfalfa cannot attain proper de-
velopment. Spike-toothed disk harrows and
special alfalfa cultivators with very narrow
shovels are used by many with success and are
especially useful in digging out crabgrass. All
cultivation of alfalfa should be directed toward
eliminating useless and harmful plants without
doing damage to the crowns and roots of the al-

68 SURE FEED CROPS

falfa planis. If the spike-toothed disk harrow
is run at too great an angle, the crowns may be
caught between the teeth of the disk and pulled
up. If run with less angle and more weight or
more times over, they do good work.

110. Webworms often destroy one or more
cuttings of alfalfa during a season. Various
spraying methods have been proposed and tried
bat the most practicable plan for fighting this
pest seems to consist in cutting the crop as soon
as they begin damaging it. and thus taking their
food away from them. This should be done no
matter at what stage of growth the alfalfa may
be, because if left undisturbed, the webworms
will strip the plant of leaves and damage sub-
sequent crops. If the alfalfa is a year old or
more, it should be given a thorough harrowing
after removing the hay. This will wool the
worms around in the dust and put a great many
of them out of business, and it will give the rest
of them a notion that it is about time to move
on. A flock of turkeys ranging over the alfalfa
field will contribute largely to the prevention of
Insect damage.

111. A seed crop cannot always be obtained
with certainty from alfalfa. The second or
the third cutting is usually left for seed. In
regions with more than thirty inches average
annual rainfall, profitable seed crops are ob-
tained only in dry years. Conditions of the soil
as to moisture must determine, at the time al-

THE FORAGE 69

falfa is coming into bloom, whether the alfalfa
should be cut for hay or left for seed. A strong,
vigorous growth of plants and a soil full of
moisture do not give ideal conditions for seed
production. Instead, the best yields of seed are
obtained from a rather short growth and
moderately dry soil. Heavy rains coming while
a short growth of alfalfa is in bloom may force
new growth which, coming up among the old
growth, will prevent the formation and curing
of a good seed crop. It requires about the time
necessary for the growth of two cuttings of
alfalfa hay to grow and mature a crop of seed.
With this, as with all other phases of the man-
agement of alfalfa, the exercise of knowledge
and judgment by the man in charge is neces-
sary and no rules can be followed. When ob-
tained, a seed crop is very profitable. In the
season of 1911, yields as high as twelve bushels
of alfalfa seed per acre were reported from
small areas in Oklahoma, and large crops of
from five to ten bushels per acre were frequent.
But on the average, from two to five bushels
per acre is a very fair yield.

112. Dodder is a pest of alfalfa when once it
gets started. Itis a native plant in at least part
of Oklahoma but oftener is sown with alfalfa
seed. The seed is somewhat similar to that of
alfalfa and should be carefully guarded against.
After dodder germinates, it twines about the
alfalfa stems and takes root in them, becoming

70 SURE FEED CROPS

a parasitic growth. Straw or trash should be
puled on the small patches of dodder when first
noticed, and burned. Seed should never be
saved from fields of alfalfa in which there is
dodder.

113. Different conditions of soil and climate
present different problems in establishing and
managing alfalfa. A few such problems have
been selected from one year’s correspondence
with farmers, chiefly in Oklahoma. They may
serve to present the various questions in a
slightly different form from the foregoing and
assist those who are determined to get for them-
selves a stand of this valuable crop.

114. Alfalfa in rows. ‘‘I am farming tight
land and am thinking of planting alfalfa in
rows and cultivating the same as corn. Is such
a plan practicable?’’—Texas county, Western
Oklahoma. This plan of growing alfalfa is fol-
lowed with success in Wyoming and is being
experimented with by a few in Western Okla-
homa. The rows should be not less than thirty
inches apart and preferably thirty-six to forty-
two inches. The land should be comparatively
level. After the alfalfa is established, it should
be cultivated shallow after each cutting and
then cross-harrowed to keep the land level.
Thorough preparation of the soil to get the
land in good condition should precede the sow-
inp: ¢91.)

THE FORAGE ° (i

115. Alfalfa on sod. ‘‘I am having some sod
broke; it is good alfalfa land and I want event-
ually to put it in that. Will it do to sow
alfalfa without cuitivating for at least a year?’’
—Jackson county, Western Oklahoma. If there
is sufficient moisture, there is every reason for
expecting that alfalfa will do as well sown on
the sod land as after it has been cultivated for a
year or two. Many have succeeded in establish-
ing alfalfa on sod land. It should be plowed
early at least six inches deep, then thoroughly
disked and chopped fine and, if there is enough
rain to soak it thoroughly, chances are good for
success if the seed is sown early in March in
your county. Summer tilling and sowing in the
fall will be more certain to kill the native
grasses.

116. Alfalfa on sandy land. ‘‘I want to sow
some alfalfa in the spring on sandy land if con-
ditions will permit. My land had cotton on it
the past season. Should the stalks be pulled
and removed before plowing, so that the soil
will turn over more compactly?’’—Logan
county, Central Oklahoma. If the land is com-
paratively level and not ridged up along the
cotton rows, it may be just as well to chop the
cotton stalks with a stalk cutter and not to plow
the sandy soil. Early in February, the land
should be disked and harrowed enough to
smooth it, and the alfalfa seed should be sown
in early March, so as to get it established ahead

12 SURE FEED CROPS

of the April winds. If the wind begins drifting
the sand, put on a light coat of straw or rotten
hay or manure and press it into the soil by run-
ning a disk harrow over it, set nearly straight.
Usually, fall is better than spring for seeding
alfalfa on sandy lands. Each case must be
handled separately, and the individual must be
prepared to meet emergencies which may arise.
Many have succeeded with fall seeding by sow-
ing a small amount of sorghum or broom corn
seed or oats with the alfalfa. This comes up
and protects against blowing and is killed by
frost before it gets big enough to damage the
alfalfa. The dead plants protect the surface
of the soil through the winter and save the al-
falfa until it covers the ground in the spring.
Of course, this plan would not work at all with
spring seeding, as the sorghum, oats, or broom
corn would choke out the alfalfa.

117. Alfalfa on sandy land. ‘‘My farm is in
the blackjacks, sandy soil. If I prepare for
seeding to alfalfa as I would like and there
comes a hard rain and wind, I lose out. I have
five acres of wheat that my hogs ran on. How
will it do to sow alfalfa into this wheat? It is
thin on the ground. Would it be better to pre-
pare the land and sow a few oats with the al-
falfa? It is a waste of time and money to sow
alfalfa on this land without something to pro-
tect it.?,—Caddo county, Central Oklahoma.
You may succeed in getting alfalfa started

THE FORAGE 73

where you have wheat by sowing the seed into it
late in February or early in March and keeping
the stock off. After the wheat and alfalfa get
up, the wheat should be cut so as to let the
sun shine down to the alfalfa. If you want to
sow in the spring, this plan is as likely to suc-
ceed as any.

118. Alfalfa in orchard. ‘‘ Will alfalfa injure
apple, pear, or other fruit trees?’’—Major
county, Western Oklahoma. Alfalfa will almost |
certainly kill fruit trees if established in the
orchard. It is possible that it might not kill
pear trees but, in general, the orchard is the
last place alfalfa should be sown and then only
after it has been determined that the orchard is
not wanted any longer. Alfalfa is able to with-
stand the effect of drouth because of the long
tap root which it sends into the subsoil. In sea-
sons when the trees are short of moisture for
maturing fruit and keeping alive, the alfalfa
will already have exhausted much of the limited
supply and the trees will perish.

119. In kafircorn stubble. ‘‘Last March, I
plowed and planted ten acres of kafircorn and
cowpeas alternately. By the time the kafir got
up, the sandburrs had sodded. I let the whole
mess go until July, plowed the stuff under,
double harrowed, and sowed kafir and cane for
feed; cut and stacked the last of October. This
left the ground clean. With so much moisture
in the ground, it appears to be my chance for

74 SURE FEED CROPS

ten more acres of alfalfa. Would it be advisable
to sow right in where I cut off the feed? The
soil is sandy loam and is nice and loose. The
ground had two good plowings last year. It
has been snowing here for twenty-four hours
and we had seven feet of moisture before it be-
gan.’’—Hllis county, Western Oklahoma. This
is a good chance for establishing alfalfa on
sandy soil. Alfalfa should be sown into the
stubble without any preparation and the earlier
it is sown and misses a freeze, the better will
be the chance for alfalfa getting established and
overcoming the sand burrs. With abundant
moisture and a sandy soil, the stubble left on
the land will be of advantage in preventing blow-
ing.

120. In humid climate. ‘‘I have black sandy
loam with yellow clay foundation, prairie bot-
tom land; also some sandy mountain land with
red clay foundation. Will either do to sow to
alfalfa?’’—Muskogee county, Eastern Okla-
homa. If the prairie bottom land is well drained
and does not overflow, it is the land on which
you should endeavor to establish alfalfa. This
soil may be sour and if it is, ground limestone
should be applied at the rate of about a ton to
the acre. If the land is weedy, it probably
would be well to put it to oats, plow as soon as
the oats are cut, and work it down to a firm seed ~
bed so that the alfalfa may be sown as early
in September as there is sufficient moisture.

THH FORAGE 75

You will probably obtain better results from fall
sowing than from spring sowing in Muskogee
county.

121. In kafircorn stubble. ‘‘I have a piece of
bottom land which I wish to get set to alfalfa.
I sowed this land to alfalfa in the spring of
1909 but did not get a good stand, so I plowed
it up in the spring of 1911 and planted corn.
When the corn failed, we planted cane and kafir-
corn. This land was well plowed last spring
and is clean but it was too dry to fall plow and
now it is too wet. Will it do to disk thoroughly
and sow alfalfa this spring without plowing it
again?’’—Tillman county, Western Oklahoma.
With such an abundance of moisture, it js pos-
sible that you may be able to get this land in
shape for sowing without plowing. The stubble
of the sorghum and kafircorn should be disked
out as soon as you possibly can and this should
be followed by a sufficient number of harrow-
ings to put the surface in condition for sowing.
With enough rain to settle the soil loosened by
the disking, the land should be in good shape
for sowing to alfalfa early in March.

122. Oats after alfalfa. ‘‘I have thinned one
piece of my alfalfa with hogs and have plowed
it up, but it was not wet enough to plow more
than three or four inches deep. Will that do
for oats? I want a sowed crop so as to fall
plow and get it back to alfalfa the following
spring. This piece of land has been in alfalfa

76 SURE FEED CROPS

four years; has been farmed since 1896, and had
been plowed from eight to ten inches deep be-
fore seeding to alfalfa.’’—Custer county, West-
ern Oklahoma. The old alfalfa field which has
been plowed shallow ought to be in good con-
dition for seeding to oats by the last of Feb-
ruary; in better condition, perhaps, than if it
had been plowed deeper. If you can get the
oats stubble plowed deep soon after harvesting,
you may be able to get the land in shape for fall
seeding to alfalfa and thus gain a little time.
If conditions for fall seeding are not good, the
land will be in the best of condition for spring
seeding.

123. Alfalfa in wheat. ‘‘I have a field in
wheat and want to put it in alfalfa. The ground
is in good shape and there is a good stand of
wheat. Will it pay me to sow alfalfa in the
wheat this spring? Or would I better wait until
fall?’’—Kingfisher county, Central Oklahoma,
It certainly will not pay to sow alfalfa in wheat.
The stubble should be disked as the wheat is
being cut, and the land plowed and prepared
for fall seeding.

124. Alfalfa after cowpeas. ‘‘T have cowpeas
on some land which I want to sow to alfalfa this
fall; also some rotten manure mixed with dirt
out in the cow lot. Will it do to plow the cow-
peas and manure under or is it better to make ~
hay of the cowpeas and disk the manure in?”’
—Cleveland county, Central Oklahoma. It will

THE FORAGE 7

be better to remove the cowpeas and use them
for hay, and then disk in the manure. It
will not be possible to get a properly firmed
seed bed for fall seeding if the cowpeas are
plowed under. Turning the cowpeas and ma-
nure under early in the fall will put the land
in good condition for spring seeding.

125. Alfalfa in oats. ‘‘I have forty acres of
old land which I sowed to oats about January
1st. They are coming up fine and not hurt by
the freeze. What would you think of sowing al-
falfa right on the oats? This is sometimes done
and it does look as if, with this wet season, it
will be the thing to do.’’— Jackson county, West-
ern Oklahoma. Usually it is poor business to
sow alfalfa with oats or into oats. But with an
excellent supply of moisture, it seems a shame
to miss a chance of getting alfalfa established.
If you want to risk it, sow the alfalfa about the
last of February. Later, if the oats appear to
be interfering with the growth of the alfalfa,
eut them for hay rather than wait for the crop
to mature grain. This will be taking a chance
but it is probably worth the taking.

126. Reseeding in spring. ‘‘Last summer,
right after harvest, I plowed seven acres of
wheat stubbles deep for alfalfa and harrowed
twice right after plowing. That was during the
first days of July. About the middle of August,
we had a pretty fair rain. I harrowed to break
the crust, sowed alfalfa seed, and harrowed

78 SURE FEED CROPS

again. The grasshoppers were thick here last
fall and as soon as the little plants came up,
they ate them off. I want to sow the same piece
again this spring. Some of my neighbors tell
me I should double-disk it, but I am afraid that
will stir the soil up too deep. I intend to plow
it shallow, only two inches deep, just enough to
give the little roots a good start, because the
soil is plenty moist this spring. Which is the
best, double disking or plowing two to three
inches deep ?’’—Garfield county, Central Okla-
homa. This is a typical case; there were many
hundreds like it in the spring of 1912. The land
should be neither plowed nor disked. As soon
as dry enough in March, it should be given a
very shallow harrowing with the teeth set slant-
ing so as to make little furrows. Then a cross-
harrowing will cover the broadeasted seed. Or
the seed may be drilled into the soil without
any harrowing. One of the most common causes
of failure to get a stand of alfalfa is sowing on
a loose seed bed. All that is needed is enough
loose soil to cover the seed not over an inch
deep. The disk harrow should never be used
on land to be sown to alfalfa except to pack the
soil immediately after plowing and fit it for har-
rowing with the spike-toothed harrow.

127. Alfalfa in rotation. ‘‘I have a quarter-
section of bottom land which overflows once-in
six to ten years. About one hundred and forty
acres are suitable for cultivation. The general

THE FORAGE 79

idea is to grow the maximum number of hogs

each year, and to raise enough corn and alfalfa
to supply them. Will you be kind enough to
give me a proper rotation for this place?’’—
Noble county, Central Oklahoma. The proper
rotation for this farm is corn and alfalfa. Some
alfalfa should be plowed up each year, planted
to corn, and a like acreage of alfalfa sown.
Through a series of years, both corn and alfalfa
will thus be grown all over the place to the ad-
vantage of both. In years of overflow which
killed some alfalfa, the corn acreage probably
woulu be large. It will likely be profitable to
grow considerable alfalfa, buying the additional
corn necessary to finish off the hogs which are
largely grown on the alfalfa. Some kafircorn
should also be grown every year.

128. Alfalfa and barley. ‘‘I want to get al-
falfa started but there is no use in sowing here
in the spring unless a nurse crop is used to keep
out weeds and crabgrass. One seed house
recommends sowing in the spring, using barley
as a nurse crop. Will that work here? I think
it is best to sow alfalfa in the fall here. Crab-
grass grew knee high here since harvest and
you can guess how alfalfa would look in such a
mess.’’—Rogers county, Eastern Oklahoma.
Land which is so foul as to make a nurse crop
seem desirable for alfalfa is not in good condi-
tion for seeding to alfalfa. Crabgrass will be
ready to do business just the same after the

80 SURE FEED CROPS

barley or other nurse crop is cut, and the nurse
crop will have prevented the development of
the alfalfa during the cool weather before the
crabgrass starts. Such land should be cultivated
to get it as clean as possible and prepared for
fall seeding.

129. Alfalfa dying out. ‘‘I have twenty-five
acres of old alfalfa and twelve of last spring’s
seeding with a perfect stand on all of it. About
two years ago, I noticed two streaks appearing
in the large piece. They don’t show much in the
first two cuttings but when hot weather comes,
and especially if it is a little dry, they are very
noticeable, scarcely making any hay at all.
These streaks are growing larger each year.
This spring, the plants in them are apparently
dead but I find by close examination that the
roots are putting out buds under the ground
so I guess they will start up after a while. The
soil is rich, black, sandy Joam with no gumbo or
hard-pan. Some say alfalfa naturally runs out
in from six to ten years and others say the roots
reaching hard material causes these streaks.
Please give me your opinion.’’—Kay county,
Central Oklahoma. It would be nothing but a
guess to attempt to explain the trouble which
you are having with your alfalfa dying out in
streaks. Alfalfa under normal conditions does
not run out if it has good care and the soil is -
favorable. It should continue being prc Iuctive
tor twenty-five years or more. It-will pay, how-

THE FORAGE 81

ever, to plow up alfalfa when for any reason
the stand becomes thin, and to rotate it with corn
or other crops before reseeding.

130. Alfalfa bacteria. ‘‘Where can I get al-
falfa bacteria to use with the seed when sowing
and do you think inoculation necessary to suc-
cess? The soil is sandy. Where should I send
a sample of soil to have it analyzed to know what
crops will do best and how much soil should L
send?’’—Woodward county, Western Okla-
homa. The only reliable place from which to
obtain alfalfa bacteria 1s from a good field of
alfalfa where the roots have an abundance of
nodules on them. If you will sow about one
hundred pounds to the acre of soil from such
a field on the land which you expect to put to
alfalfa, you will have done all of the inoculating
which you can do. Artificial inoculation is not
at all necessary to success with alfalfa on suit-
able soils in your county. The best analysis is
to prepare the land and sow the alfalfa. No
soil analysis will tell, for practical purposes,
what crops will do best. One thing which your
sandy soil needs is humus and you can obtain
this by growing cowpeas and plowing them
under as preparation of the soil for alfalfa.
If the cowpeas are plowed under during the
early fall, the land can be got into good shape
for spring seeding.

131. Seed testing. ‘‘Where can I have alfalfa
seed examined to find out what weed seed it con-

82 SURE FEED CROPS

tains and what percent. of the alfalfa seed will
grow ?’’—Baylor county, Texas. You should
send an ounce sample of the alfalfa seed to the
Hxperiment Station, College Station, Texas. It
_ takes about ten days to do this work and there
should be no charge for it. Kansas farmers
should send samples to the Experiment Sta-
tion, Manhattan, Kansas; Oklahoma farmers to
the Experiment Station, Stillwater, Oklahoma;
Arkansas farmers to the Experiment Station,
Fayetteville, Arkansas.

132. Cultivating alfalfa. ‘‘For cultivating al-
falfa, is the spike-tooth disk the best at all
times, or is the common disk better sometimes,
especially when grass is coming up? Please
tell when and how to cultivate it to get best re-
sults.’’—Garfield county, Central Oklahoma.
The spike-tooth disk harrow is more satisfac-
tory than the solid disk harrow for cultivating
alfalfa and cleaning out the grass. As a rule,
alfalfa should be cultivated in March just as
growth is starting and after each cutting if
thought necessary. The disking should not be
heavy, especially until after the alfalfa is two
years old. Good work can be done with a
weighted smoothing harrow.

133. Johnson grass and alfalfa. ‘‘I have some
Johnson grass on overflow land. Could I sow
alfalfa on the ground and kill the Johnson ©
grass? Sowing it to alfalfa is the easiest way
IT can manage it if the overflow will not kill the

THE FORAGE 83

alfalfa. Will it do it?’’—Kay county, Central
Oklahoma. It is not at all certain that alfalfa
will kill out Johnson grass under all conditions,
though it has disposed of some thin stands. A
good stand of alfalfa will withstand a con-
siderable amount of overflow as long as the
water keeps moving. If the water stands
quietly on alfalfa for much longer than twenty-
four hours, the alfalfa is usually killed.

134, Breaking a crust. ‘‘If a hard rain should
come after seeding and make a crust, should
this be harrowed or will the alfalfa break the
erust and come through? How soon after al-
falfa comes up should I use the harrow and will
it pay me to get an alfalfa disk harrow? If so,
how soon should I use it?’’—Pottawatomie
eounty, Central Oklahoma. If a heavy rain
forms a crust immediately after sowing alfalfa,
there is little that can be done to overcome the
difficulty. It is not safe to harrow, as the al-
falfa seed will have germinated and the stand
will likely be lost. About all that can be done
is to hope for a shower that will moisten the
erust and let the alfalfa out. Alfalfa should not
be harrowed until it is about a year old. On
many soils, it is not necessary to cultivate al-
falfa. When the soil becomes compacted by
pasturing or when crabgrass gets started, a
spike-tooth disk harrow is needed.

135. Thickening thin alfalfa. ‘‘How can I
get a better stand of alfalfa after it has been

84 SURE FEED CROPS

seeded three years? It is thin in spots.’’—
Payne county, Central Oklahoma. It is very
difficult to thicken a stand of alfalfa after it
is more than one year old. If seed is sown, the
little plants are shaded out by the larger ones
which are well established and draw heavily
upon the moisture in the soil. If the stand is
too thin to give profitable yields of hay, the best
thing to do is to plow it up and reseed.

‘‘T sowed twenty-eight acres of alfalfa
March 23, 1911. The weeds and dry weather
killed it in spots. Can I sow more seed in the
spring of 1912 and hope to thicken my stand?
There is a fine season in the ground and it is
loose and mellow on top. I would have re-
sowed in the fall of 1911 but the land was too
dry.’’—Tillman county, Western Oklahoma.
You now have your last chance to thicken this
thin stand of alfalfa. Five to ten pounds of
alfalfa seed per acre should be drilled or broad-
casted and harrowed in early March. This will
give the alfalfa a chance to catch up with that
which is older, and while you may not be en-
tirely successful, the chances are that the stand
will be improved.

‘On the first of October, I sowed ten acres
of alfalfa. The freeze in November killed out
one-third of it. The ground is in fine condi-
tion. Will it do to harrow lightly and sow again
in March, not using as much seed, then harrow —
again after sowing?’?’—Tulsa county, Hastern
Oklahoma. This plan of thickening thin alfalfa

THE FORAGE 85

is exactly right. It may not be necessary to
harrow before sowing unless there is a crust
on the soil.

136. Alfalfa and crabgrass. ‘‘I plowed some
wheat stubble last summer and the crabgrass
came up on it about knee high. Will it be best
to plow again for seeding to alfalfa in the
spring, or could I burn the grass off, and get a
better and firmer seed bed by harrowing? It
wasn’t plowed very deep.’’—Rogers county,
Eastern Oklahoma. The land should be put to
some spring crop such as oats, rather than to
attempt to get it ready for spring seeding to
alfalfa with so much crabgrass in the soil. The
eraberass will almost certainly come up and
crowd out the alfalfa. You missed an excellent
chance when you failed to cultivate this land
and keep the crabgrass down last fall. Plow
this land as early as possible and sow it to
oats. Disk the oats stubble immediately after
the crop is eut and plow deep as soon as pos-
sible. Keep harrowing and allow no weeds or
grass to become established. Sow to alfalfa
between August 15 and September 20, as soon
as there is enough moisture in the soil to germi-

nate the seed and sustain the plants for a month
without rain.

137. Water near surface. ‘‘I have sixty acres
of good bottom land along the North Canadian
river but some tell me that water is so close to

86 SURE FEED CROPS

the surface that it will not grow alfalfa. The
water is from three to five feet below the sur-
face. I have some sub-irrigated land which is
higher, but is sandy, a dark red color.’’—Wood-
ward county, Western Oklahoma. If the water
never gets closer to the surface than three feet,
you will be able to establish alfalfa and main-
tain it profitably for several years. If, during
a very wet season, the water should come to the
surface of the soil and stay there for any length
of time, the alfalfa will be killed. Usually, it is
well for water to be not closer than five to ten
feet from the surface of land where alfalfa is
sown.

138. Poisoning gophers. ‘‘I would lke to
know of some sure and simple way of getting
rid of gophers in alfalfa.’’—Okfuskee county,
HKastern Oklahoma. Get some raisins, cut a
little slit in each raisin and insert a small crys-
tal of strychnine sulphate. Keep these pois-
oned raisins in a can where there is no possi-
bility of the children getting them. Take a
sharp pointed stick (it is better if shod with
iron) and punch holes between two fresh gopher
mounds until the runway is located. Drop in
a poisoned raisin and plug the hole with a clod.
Do this all over the field where gophers are at
work and level off the mounds so that new
ones may easily be seen. After about a week,
repeat the operation, and if the work has been

THE FORAGE 87

done carefully, that will be the finish of the
gophers for quite a while. Whenever any show
up, give them another dose.

139. Dodder in alfalfa. ‘‘ Will you please tell
me how to detect the presence of dodder in
growing alfalfa? I have inquired of a dozen
alfalfa men and could not find one who had ever
seen any of it. What does it look like? We
may have it and not know it.’’—Grant county,
Central Oklahoma. The presence of dodder is
shown by yellowish patches in the alfalfa field.
When examined, the yellowish color will be
found to be due to a vine which twines about
the stems of the alfalfa and seems to have no
connection with the soil. If at the right stage,
the vines will be producing seed pods. On
opening them you will find seed quite similar
to alfalfa seed in appearance. These seeds
germinate in the soil and after the dodder plants
come up, they attach themselves to the alfalfa
and live off the juices of the alfalfa plants,
thus weakening and killing them. The way to
kill dodder is to kill it. This can be best done
by piling straw on the patches where dodder
appears and burning it. If the patches are very
small, they may be killed out by cutting and
earefully removing the alfalfa plants to which
the dodder has become attached, being very
careful not to drop any dodder seed.

_,140. Curing alfalfa hay. ‘‘How should I
handle’ alfalfa hay from the time it is cut to

88 SURE FEED CROPS

keep it from coming out of the mow musty and
moldy?’’—Kay county, Central Oklahoma. If
alfalfa hay, as soon as it is well wilted, is turned
into windrows with a side delivery rake and
allowed to cure there until no juice can be
squeezed out of the stems by tightly twisting a
bunch of them, there should be no trouble from
the hay becoming musty in the mow. There are
those who say they put alfalfa hay into the
mow green and pay no attention to whether or
not it is dry enough; but the average individual
with human limitations will find it desirable and
necessary to have alfalfa hay as dry as it can
be got, without losing leaves in handling, be-
fore storing it away.

141. Irrigating alfalfa. ‘‘I have forty acres
of alfalfa land which can be irrigated by rais-
ing the water about twenty feet. Will it pay to
irrigate it? When should the water be turned
on a seed crop of alfalfa and how long should
the water remain on?’’—Kay county, Central
Oklahoma. It is entirely practicable to pump
water to a height of twenty feet for the irriga-
tion of alfalfa. A gasoline engine and a cen-
trifugal pump will lift water that high economi-
eally. Alfalfa should be irrigated immediately
after cutting and removing the hay. An irriga-
tion of one to two inches at this time should be
sufficient to produce a crop of hay and often
no irrigation at all is necessary in your county.
Ordinarily, there is too much moisture in the

THE FORAGE 89

soil for the production of a first class seed crop
in Kay county and irrigation for this purpose
in a dry season should be very light.

142. Turkestan alfalfa. ‘‘I should like your
opinion on trying to grow Turkestan alfalfa on
some of our uplands. I have grown alfalfa on
upland very successfully by specially preparing
the land and fertilizing heavily. Is there any
difference in the feeding value of Turkestan
and common alfalfa?’’—Cleveland county, Cen-
tral Oklahoma. It will not be profitable for
you to waste time with the variety of alfalfa
ealled Turkestan. Trials of it in Oklahoma
have shown that it does not produce as well as
alfalfa which has become acclimated to Okla-
homa conditions. The best alfalfa seed for
you to sow on uplands is seed produced on
similar soils in your locality, if it can be ob-
tained. There is practically no difference in
the feeding value of the two varieties, but there
is considerable difference in the yield and it is
in favor of your locally grown alfalfa.

143. Alfalfa in Arkansas. ‘‘I have seven
acres of bottom land which I want to sow to
alfalfa. It is of a black, waxey, wet nature. It
was sowed to wheat last fall. Wiull it do for al-
falfa? Can I sow it in the spring and harrow
it in with the wheat?’’—Boone county, Arkan-
sas. You will not have one chance in ten of
obtaining a stand of alfalfa if you sow it with
wheat in the spring. Land naturally wet is not

30 SURE FEED CROPS

adapted to alfalfa growing unless it is drained
so that water never rises closer than five feet
from the surface, and preferably never closer
than ten feet. If the soil is suitable, it should be
plowed as soon as wheat is harvested and har-
rowed thoroughly until the seed bed is well
settled. Twenty pounds of alfalfa seed should
be sown to the acre at any time after August
1st that the soil is filled with moisture.

‘‘T have a field of bottom land which is a
loose, sandy, level loam. J am thinking of try-
ing alfalfa. We are living on the James Fork
bottom and no one is growing alfalfa around
here. Do you think it is worth trying ?’’—Se-
bastian county, Arkansas. If the land is well
drained, it most certainly will grow alfalfa
profitably, provided it is not subject to pro-
longed overflow. It certainly is well worth try-
ing. In your locality, 1t may be well to apply
lime or ground limestone to the soil before sow-
ing alfalfa.

144, Measuring stacked hay. ‘‘Can you give
me a good rule to measure hay in the stack when

well settled?’’—Alfalfa county, Western Okla-
homa. The following is one of the usual rules:
To determine the number of cubic feet in astack
of hay, measure the distance from the ground on'

one side of the stack to the ground on the other

side. Subtract the width of the stack from this.

Divide the remainder by the height of the stack.

Multiply this figure by the distance from the

—< —

THE FORAGH 91

ground on one side of the stack to the ground on
the other side; then multiply by the width; then
multiply by the length; and then multiply by
0.225. This will give the number of cubic feet.
Divide this by 380, the average number of cubic
feet in a ton of well settled hay, and you will
have the number of tons in the stack, as nearly
as it is possible to estimate it.

145. Grades of alfalfa hay. The following is
the classification adopted by the National Hay
Association in 1905:

‘Choice Alfalfa—Shall be reasonably fine,
leafy alfalfa, of bright green color, properly
cured, sound, sweet, and well baled.

‘““No. 1 Alfalfa—Shall be coarse alfalfa of
bright green color, or reasonably fine, leafy, of
good color, and may contain five percent. of for-
elgn grasses; must be well baled, sound, and
sweet. :

‘No. 2 Alfalfa—Shall include alfalfa some-
what bleached, but of fair color, reasonably
leafy, not more than one-eighth foreign grasses,
sound and well baled.

‘‘No. 3 Alfalfa—Shall include bleached al-
falfa, or alfalfa mixed with not to exceed one-
fourth foreign grasses, but when mixed must be
of fair color, sound, and well baled.

‘No Grade Alfalfa—Shall include all alfalfa
not good enough for other grades, caked, musty,
grassy, or threshed.’’

146. The best market for alfalfa hay is good

92 SURE FEED CROPS

livestock on the farm which produced it. Dis-
cussing this point, Director Webster of the Kan-
sas Agricultural Experiment Station said:
‘“We are not getting what we should from our
alfalfa. Located as we are, we have naturally
come to making alfalfa a commercial crop. We
have mills which grind alfalfa which, with the
baled crop, is shipped to other states in amazing
amounts. Kansas farmers cannot afford to
sell their alfalfa outside of the state. If the
eastern feeder, who is glad to get our alfalfa at
three times the price we get for it, can put it
into his barn for feed and sell the finished pro-
duct profitably, then the Kansas farmer is los-
ing the difference when he might as well be
putting the finished product on the market him-
self.’’

147. The best alfalfa mill is good livestock
which can grind alfalfa hay more economically
than any machine which has yet been built. The
business of milling alfalfa is coming to be a
profitable adjunct to the business of milling
wheat, kafircorn, and other grains. There is
where it belongs. The livestock markets at
Kansas City, Wichita, Oklahoma City, and
Fort Worth furnish the places where farmers
of the Central Southwest may market the only
alfalfa mills likely to bring them a profit—the
fat cattle and hogs and livestock products. In-
vestments in good livestock are many times
more likely to pay profits than are investments

THE FORAGE 93

in beautifully engraved certificates of stock in
alfalfa mills, whether paid for in ot or in
alfalfa hay.

148. Judicious pasturing of alfalfa is profit-
able. Alfalfa less than a year old should not be
pastured at all; it needs at least that much time
for getting well established. Alfalfa is a hay
crop rather than a pasture crop. But pasturing
combined with the production of hay may be
made to give the greatest profits. If possible
to avoid it, alfalfa should not be pastured so
heavily that two to three good cuttings of hay
are not produced each season, in addition to
the pasture. Heavy pasturing makes the stand
thin and gives grass and weeds a chance to be-
come established.

149. In the spring, when growth is starting,
one month of heavy pasturing may damage a
stand of alfalfa more than pasturing it heavily
the other eleven months. The plants must have
a chance to recuperate. If the leaves are nipped
off as rapidly as they appear when growth
starts in the spring, the plants are discouraged
and the weaker ones die. If stock are taken off
by March Ist, and the alfalfa is given a good
cultivation, with an alfalfa cultivator or a
smoothing harrow heavily weighted, the plants
will be strengthened and will start into vigor-
ous growth when warm days come. The bac-
teria in the nodules on alfalfa roots can get no
nitrogen from the air unless air gets into the

94 SURE FEED CROPS

soul. <A cultivation which will loosen the sur-
face soil without doing damage to the plants
should be given at least once a year to all al- .
falfa which is pastured. The egg cases of grass-
hoppers will be thrown out and destroyed.
Moisture will be saved to push the growth of
the crop instead of being permitted to evaporate
from the compacted surface.

150. Hogs pastured on alfalfa will make more
profitable growth if fed a ration of kafircorn,
milomaize, or corn in addition to the pasture. It
is possible to maintain hogs on alfalfa pasture
alone, but it is not possible to finish them for
market without the feeding of grain. The Ne-
braska Experiment Station has thoroughly in-
vestigated the uses of alfalfa in feeding hogs.
In one experiment, four lots of ten pigs each,
averaging about 75 pounds, were pastured on
alfalfa. One lot received no corn, the other lots
ate respectively 1.33, 2.48, and 3.46 pounds of
corn per pig per day. The daily gains per pig
in each of the four lots during a period of sixty
days were 0.02, 0.34, 0.63, and 0.85 pounds. Fig-
uring the alfalfa pasture at $2 per acre for each
lot and corn at market prices, thirty cents per
bushel, the cost of 100 pounds of gain for the
different lots was: $14.30; $2.74; $2.45; and
$2.43. Many with a considerable acreage of
alfalfa have made the mistake of raising more
hogs on alfalfa than they could obtain grain to |
finish. This has happened several times, es-

THE FORAGE 95

pecially in localities which have depended upon
growing corn and have not planted good acre-
ages of those sure grain crops, kafircorn and
milomaize. Except scabby ears on thin-skinned
shoats allowed to run in wet alfalfa, there is
rarely trouble of any sort from pasturing al-
falfa with hogs. This should be treated with a
solution of one of the coal tar dips used accord-
ing to directions on the package.

151. Bloat of cattle sometimes results when
they are first turned on alfalfa pasture or when
it is wet. A mixed stand of alfalfa and crab-
grass or other grasses is more satisfactory as
cattle pasture than a first class stand of alfalfa.
While many pasture both horses and cattle on
alfalfa with profitable returns and few or no
losses, the first purpose and greatest value of
alfalfa is not for pasture. Those who grow the
crop successfully for hay may work into pas-
turing gradually. But those who expect to grow
it for pasture as the first consideration are not
likely to find it satisfactory.

152. In composition and actual feeding value,
a ton of good alfalfa hay is fully the equal of
1600 pounds of wheat bran. One hundred
pounds of alfalfa hay contain 11.1 pounds of
digestible protein, 39.1 pounds of digestible car-
bohydrates, and 0.6 pounds digestible fat. One
hundred pounds of wheat bran contain 11.9
pounds digestible protein, 42.0 pounds digest-
ible carbohydrates, and 2.5 pounds digestible

96 SURE FEED CROPS

fat. For all practical purposes, results from
feeding alfalfa in combination with other feeds
will be entirely satisfactory if practically the
same methods are used as are customary when
feeding wheat bran. No one experienced in
feeding would think of giving any animal noth-
ing but bran; neither should they have nothing
but alfalfa but, because of its bulkiness, the ex-
elusive feeding of alfalfa is not as harmful as
the exclusive feeding of bran would be. All
animals fed alfalfa should also be fed ground
kafirecorn or milomaize or Indian corn. There
is no need for buying and feeding bran, shorts,
or cottonseed meal when alfalfa hay is on hand.
Whenever a ton of alfalfa hay sells for less than
the cost of 1600 pounds of bran, alfalfa is the
cheaper. feed for every kind of farm livestock.

153. The fertilizer constituents in a ton of al-
falfa hay are 49.4 pounds nitrogen, 35.8 pounds
potash, and 12.2 pounds phosphorie acid. If
bought in the form of commercial fertilizers,
this will cost at least $9.80. When alfalfa hay
is sold, even at fifteen dollars per ton, two-
thirds of the cash received is drawn from the
supply of fertility of the farm which produced
it. It is true that a large part of the nitrogen
of alfalfa is taken from the air through the
work of the bacteria in the nodules on the roots.
But the potash and the phosphoric acid all
eomes from the soil, much of it being drawn
from the subsoil at depths not reached by other
erops. Sold at the usual prices, this fertility is

THE FORAGE 97

given to the lands of others. Fed on the farms
which produce it, alfalfa hay builds the fertility
of the soil and makes possible increasing yields
of other crops. Sold, alfalfa is a soil robber;
fed, it is a soil enricher. The man who grows
alfalfa and sells the hay is wasting his patri-
mony without getting even the questionable
pleasure of riotous living out of it.

154. For horses, alfalfa hay is an entirely
satisfactory and valuable feed if used with any
degree of judgment. Keeping in mind the fact
that in composition, alfalfa hay is practically
the same as bran, only limited amounts should
be fed at first. Alfalfa hay should not be fed
alone to work horses and brood mares, any
more than bran should be fed alone. When al-
falfa hay is fed, the grain ration may consist
entirely of kafircorn, milomaize, or corn, and
other hay should be fed, at least until the horses
become entirely accustomed to alfalfa. The
amount of alfalfa fed per day to a horse should
be limited to ten to fifteen pounds. In regions
of heavy alfalfa production, no other hay than
alfalfa is fed and fine horses are produced.
Many breeders of pure-bred Percherons make
large use of alfalfa as feed for their brood
mares, colts, and stallions.

155. Cattle feeding offers a field for the profit-
able utilization of large amounts of alfalfa hay.
The proper production and use of kafircorn,
milomaize, and alfalfa in beef production by the

98 SURE FEED CROPS

farmers of the Central Southwest will make this
region practically independent of drouth. The
use of alfalfa hay in connection with these
grains in fattening steers has already been dis-
eussed (26). Steers on full feed of ground
kafircorn or milomaize will consume from ten
to fifteen pounds of alfalfa hay per day per
head. Stock cattle may be maintained and will
keep in good condition on alfalfa hay, either
alone or with but little grain. Alfalfa hay dam-
aged by rain should never be destroyed; it
bes gets so badly spoiled that cattle will not
eat it.

156. In the dairy ration, alfalfa effects a great
saving in the cost of production (27). Alfalfa
may constitute the entire hay ration of dairy
cows being fed liberally on ground kafircorn or
milomaize. Under farm conditions, when al-
falfa hay is produced, there is no need of pur-
chasing bran, shorts, or cottonseed meal for
dairy cattle. With cows producing large
amounts of milk, and requiring correspondingly
large quantities of feed, some of these concen-
trated feeds may be used to replace a portion
of the more bulky alfalfa hay.

157, Feeding hay to hogs is regarded as some-
thing of a joke by those uninformed as to the
value of alfalfa hay in reducing the cost of the
production of pork. But for many years, prac- —
tical feeders have used large amounts of alfalfa
with profit in hog feeding. The Nebraska Agri-

THE FORAGE 99

cultural Experiment Station has reported the
results of numerous experiments in hog feeding
where alfalfa was a part of the ration. The
most satisfactory ration, judged from the profit
made per hog fattened, was corn and all of the
alfalfa hay, fed from the rack, that the hogs
would eat. This method turned off more net
profit than when the alfalfa was chopped or
ground to meal before feeding. The conclusions
are: ‘‘After studying, for several years, the
problem of feeding alfalfa hay to hogs, we
would recommend the following:

‘Heed a good quality of fourth cutting if
possible. If this cannot be obtained, feed the
finest and brightest hay possible.

‘‘Weed the hay in a rack from which it may
be eaten easily, or feed twice or three times
daily, on hard soil or on a feeding floor, throw-
ing aside the refuse left over from the last feed.

‘Give the hogs an abundance of alfalfa. Do
not try to make them eat the coarse stems. They
will eat corn in preference and not eat as much
alfalfa as is desirable. Feed the coarse stems
to the cattle and horses.’’ (29.)

158. For poultry feeding, alfalfa is coming
into increasing use. The leaves are used in
making mixtures of feed for growing poultry
and laying hens. The protein of the alfalfa fur-
nishes a portion of the nitrogenous material re-
quired for the formation of the albumen of the

eggs. Alfalfa pastures for poultry are also
coming into use.

100 SURE FEED CROPS

159, Bee-keeping is a most profitable adjunct
to alfalfa raising; profitable to the beekeeper in
the production of excellent honey and to the

alfalfa grower in the more perfect fertilization
of the seed crop.

COWPEAS

160. Cowpeas in the south have for many
years been grown quite extensively. Those who
have come from the humid southern states to
farm under the semi-arid conditons of the Cen-
tral Southwest have found it necessary to make
many changes from their accustomed methods
of cropping. The common practice of sowing
cowpeas among the corn, which brings profit-
able results in the Atlantic coast states, is not
satisfactory here. Cowpeas pay better when

handled, at least in part, as a real crop instead
of as a catch crop.

161. Cowpeas replace clover in crop rotations
here. Farmers from northern states, accus-
tomed to growing clover, have found the crop
unprofitable in the southwest. As they have
learned to make use of cowpeas instead of
clover, they have found that cowpeas will do
as much in the way of soil improvement and
the production of feed in four months as clover
will do in eighteen months, even under con-
ditions most favorable for the growth of clover. |
A realization of this fact in the northern states,
even where clover does well, is causing a more

THE FORAGE 101

extended use of cowpeas and a reduction of the
clover acreage on many farms. Cowpeas obtain
from the air a portion of the nitrogen required
for their growth. The same is true of clover
and it is this feature which makes the crop of
value in the maintenance of soil fertility.

162. On upland soils, not well suited to the
production of alfalfa, cowpeas may be grown
and will supply feed fully the equal of alfalfa
hay for all purposes. from cowpea hay and
kafircorn or milomaize, rations may be provided
for cattle, horses, and hogs fully equal in ability
to produce profitable results with rations com-
posed of alfalfa hay and corn. These sure feed
erops make it possible for farmers on relatively
poor soils to engage in stock raising with the
certainty of profit.

163. Cowpeas require cultivation and, in
regions with limited rainfall, rarely produco
profitable crops when broadcasted or drilled
thickly. Land to be planted to cowpeas should
have good preparation, the same as for any
other real crop. Usually, the rows should be
the standard width, forty-two inches apart. In
locations with plenty of moisture, they are
sometimes ‘‘double-rowed’’ when planted with
a two-row corn planter, making the rows
twenty-one inches apart. This is too close, how-
ever, for satisfactory cultivation or for cer-
tainty of yields in dry seasons.

102 SURE FEED CROPS

164. A crop of cowpeas should be grown at
least once in three years on all cultivated land.
The crops grown will determine where cow-
peas can most profitably be worked into the ro-
tation. This will be indicated to some degree in
what follows. Continuous planting of any one
crop on the soil, without a change, inevitably
results in decreased yields. If the chief crop
is wheat, a portion of the stubble should be
disked as the wheat is cut and planted to cow-
peas in shallow furrows, this land to be planted
to oats, kafireorn, or milomaize the following
spring. If cotton is the principal crop, not all
of the cotton land should be replanted to cotton
the following spring. Instead, part of it should
be planted to sure feed crops, among which cow-
peas should be included.

165. Alternate rows of cowpeas and kafir-
corn, or milomaize furnish a practicable way of
growing these crops, insuring good yields, and
at the same time keeping up the soil’s fertility.
The kafircorn, for example, is planted at the
usual time for the locality, but the rows are put
seven feet apart. After a cultivation or two
with the harrow or cultivator, and perhaps a
month later, cowpeas are planted in the middle
of the seven-foot strip between the kafircorn
rows. After the kafircorn gets too big to
straddle with the cuitivator, cultivation of the
cowpeas should be continued. The following
year, the rows should be reversed, kafircorn

THE FORAGE 103

being planted in the rows where the cowpeas
grew the previous year.

166. A peck of cowpea seed to the acre is
enough. Cowpea seed are usually high in price,
ranging from $1.50 to $3.50 per bushel and even
higher at the close of the planting season.
Thickly planted, cowpeas will make but poor
growth in a dry season. If thinly planted,
there will be plants enough in a dry season and
~ these will grow large enough to occupy the
space in wet seasons. Many failures with cow-
peas have been caused by planting them too
thickly. A peck to the acre is always enough.
At that rate of seeding, the cost of seed per
acre is light.

167. The soil should be warm before cowpeas
are planted. The seed quickly rots if placed in
a wet, cold soil. They germinate quickly with
proper conditions of warmth and moisture. In
Oklahoma, May Ist in the southern part of the
state, and June Ist along the northern border,
are the earliest dates for planting cowpeas.
The early varieties furnish the earliest grain
pasture for hogs. To make sure of a crop, the
planting should be completed if possible by
July 1, though fair yields are sometimes ob-
tained from planting as late as July 15. Usually,
there is not enough moisture to give the crop
a good start if planting is delayed until July.

168. As a catch crop, planted on wheat or
oats stubble, cowpeas are not always certain

104 SURE FEED CROPS >

to pay. Unless there is abundant moisture in
June and the crop is put in early, a dry July
may make the crop a complete failure. In
favorable years, however, good crops have been
raised by planting cowpeas into disked stubble
jand. Cotton sometimes fails to make a stand.
Late replanting is rarely profitable, but there
is usually time to plant cowpeas after the cotton
has been abandoned. Early potatoes should be
followed by a crop of cowpeas instead of by a
second crop of potatoes. Wherever a crop has
been removed in time or there is a vacant patch
of land in June, it should be put to use growing
cowpeas instead of being permitted to grow up
to weeds.

169. For green manuring, to be plowed under
for soil improvement, cowpeas are a profitable
crop. They should be turned under when the
plant is at the highest stage of growth, just
before it begins maturing. This will actually
add to the supply of plant food in the soil, some
of the nitrogen of the plants being obtained
from the air through the action of the bacteria
in the nodules on the cowpea roots. The vege-
table matter after it decays will also improve
the soil and make it work better. If the soil
is sandy, the soil grains will be held together
by the decayed cowpeas and will have less of
a tendency to blow. If the soil is tough and
pasty, it will be loosened to some extent and
work better. As a rule, land where cowpeas
have been turned under in August or September

THE FORAGE 105

should not be sowed to wheat or alfalfa in the
fall but should instead be planted to crops the
next spring. It takes time for the material to
decay and the soil to settle to a good seed bed.
Wheat may be sown on land from which a crop
of early cowpeas has been pastured off or cut
for hay.

170. Good feed is wasted, however, when a
crop of cowpeas is plowed under. It is more
profitable to get their full feeding value, if pos-
sible, and put the resulting manure on the land.
Cattle may be pastured on cowpeas with profit
if care to prevent bloat is taken when they are
first turned in. They should be turned in at
first in the evening for a short time until they
become accustomed to the large supply of rich
feed. Hogs often do not pasture satisfactorily
on cowpeas, especially if turned in before any
of the pods have ripened. They may dig up and
eat the roots, leaving the tops to waste. But
there is no more economical way of harvesting
a cowpea crop than by pasturing it with hogs
after most of the pods have matured. Gains
will be better if they have a light feed of ground
kafircorn or milomaize to balance the ration
while pasturing on the cowpeas. Even after the
vines have been killed by frost, horses and
eattle will continue eating them and hogs will
gather the seed.

171. Cowpeas for hay should be cut before
the bottom leaves begin drying, while still

106 SURE FEED CROPS

blooming at the top but after the pods have
begun ripening at the bottom. Cultivation of
cowpeas to be cut for hay should be such as to
leave the land level and free from ridges. The
crop is usually cut with a mower but, if the
grain is ripened, this shatters much of it. Better
work can be done with the mower by using an
extension on the guards to lift the vines. The
roots may be cut off with a sharp plow with the
moldboard removed, or with a sharp iron prop-
erly bent and attached to a plow beam. As
with alfalfa, the curing is best effected by keep-
ing the leaves alive and transpiring water for
as long a time as possible after cutting. After
wilting in the swath, the curing should be con-
tinued in the windrow and, if necessary, in
small piles. The more thoroughly cowpea hay
can be cured without losing its leaves, the
better the condition in which it will come out
of the mow or stack. Cattle will eat badly dam-
aged cowpea hay but its feeding qualities are
not improved by its having become mouldy or
blackened.

172. The feeding value of cowpea hay for all
farm purposes is essentially the same as that
of alfalfa hay. (152.) It varies widely, de-
pending upon the amount of matured grain
which it contains and the percentage of leaves
lost during the curing. Cowpeas contain 16.8
percent. digestible protein, 54.9 percent. diges-
tible carbohydrates, and 1.1 percent. digestible
fat. The hay, without the grain, contains 5.8

THE FORAGE 107

percent. digestible protein, 39.3 percent. diges-
tible carbohydrates, and 1.3 percent. digestible
fat. For horses, dairy cattle, and fattening
steers and hogs, cowpea hay may be used for
every purpose that alfalfa hay can be used and
the results will be practically the same. Ut isa
rich feed, difficult at times to care for and cure
properly, but one which should be grown and
fed much more extensively as one of the sure
feed crops adapted to Central Southwestern
conditions.

173. Varieties. Numerous varieties of cow-
peas are grown. The Whippoorwill is the most
common, though different types are often sold
under this name. It isa variety which produces
a good growth of vine and a fair yield of seed.
W. P. Camp of Washita county, Western Okla-
homa, has made variety tests of cowpeas and
sums up their general adaptabilities as fol-
lows:

For hay— Whippoorwill, Iron, New Era, War-
ren’s New Hybrid, Red Crowder.

For seed—Michigan Favorite, Whippoorwill,
Groit, Brabham.

For quick maturity—New Era, Warren’s
Extra Early, Michigan Favorite, Whippoorwill.

For slow maturity—Red Ripper, King, Un-
known, Clay.

For heavy vines—Unknown, Rep Ripper,
King, Clay, Brown Crowder. One early and one
late variety are desirable on every farm.

108 SURE FEED CROPS

174, Cowpea seed are usually high in price
because of the labor necessary to save the seed.
The ripe pods are picked by hand, children usu-
ally doing the work. These are later either
hulled with machinery or flailed out. Small
hullers, run by hand or a gasoline engine, do
satisfactory work. Some seed is saved by stor-
ing hay containing ripe seed in mows with tight
floors. As the hay is fed cut, the seed are shaken
down and later cleaned off of the floor. Special
cowpea threshers which thresh the grain from
the entire plant without cracking the seed are
now coming into more general use. Grain
threshers do not do satisfactory work with cow-
peas. They crack too large a proportion and
spoil them for seed.

175. Weevil damage in cowpea seed is a fre-
quent source of loss. This may be prevented by
placing the cowpeas in a tight bin or box and
putting in with them, in open dishes or by pour-
ing through a pipe into the middle of the pile,
one pound of carbon bi-sulphide for each thirty
bushels of grain. The bin should be kept tightly
covered and fire should be kept away until the
odor disappears. This treatment will kill the
weevils and similar treatment two weeks to a
month afterward will kill any others which may
have hatched out. Another method consists in
putting the cowpeas in an air-tight bin, then fill
a number of small bottles with carbon bi-sul-
phide, cutting a notch in the stopper of each.

THE FORAGE 109

Set these bottles in the cowpeas and let them
keep up continuous treatment for weevil.

176. Practical experience is necessary to
adapt the cowpea crop to varying soil condi-
tions. An excellent illustration of this is fur-
nished by the following report from P. R. Slack
of Major county, Western Oklahoma:

‘A few years ago, I became a convert to the
planting of cowpeas and although I have had
some partial failures, I have never become a
backslider. My farm is in the blackjacks and
the soil is very sandy. I cut the cowpeas with
a cutter and the fields being left bare of vegeta-
tion, how that soil did blow! I had to dig my
wire fences out of the sand banks in the spring.
But I realized that the fault was not with the
cowpeas so I tried drilling the field to wheat or
rye, merely as a cover crop after the cowpeas
were taken off.

‘‘In the summer of 1911, during the dry,
pareching weather, my field of cowpeas was a
rich, dark green, showing no trace of dry
weather, while the corn was parched and suf-
fering for moisture. The soil has been im-
proved by plowing under a green crop of rye or
wheat every year on land which was in cowpeas
the previous year. The soil did not blow badly
in the spring of 1912, even with the bad dust
storms we have had.

‘To prepare the soil for cowpeas, I plow
during May after the other crops are out of the
way and the weeds have obtained a good start,

110 SURE FEED CROPS

preferably land which was in kafircorn or
broom corn the year before, using a chain to
wind under all weeds and trash. I follow with
a harrow and any time in June, after a good
rain or two has settled the soil, list shallow—
from two and a half to three inches deep. Make
furrows not more than three feet apart. Drill
right after the lister so as to put the seed in
moist earth, drilling about one peck to the acre,
one seed each three to four inches in the row.

‘‘T then cultivate two or three times, oring-
ing the soil to the plants from the fi t. In
hard land, it might be well to plow earty, but
I wish to get all the humus possible into the soil
so prefer to plow after the weeds get a good
start. A furrow opener attachment to a corn
planter would be a fine thing to use in planting
the cowpeas. I have planted cowpeas as late
as July 15 and they fully matured a heavy crop
of seed. I have also found that those planted
after the middle of June remain free from
weevil until warm weather the following season,
while the early-planted are badly infested dur-
ing the fall of the year in which they are grown.

‘‘Hor cutting cowpeas, I use the following:
Take an old plowbar and a piece of corn sled
steel about twenty-six inches in length to the
blacksmith shop and have the steel welded to
the bar, at an angle of a little more than forty-
five degrees, making the steel of knife lie nearly
flat. Puta brace across from bar to knife. Bolt .
the bar to a riding plow or lister, and put on

THE FORAGE 1H

your rolling coulter with a crooked shank so as
to cut the vines as far from the row as possible.
Tf the soil is hard or dry, the lever can be set
to cut at the surface; if loose and sandy, it
should be set to cut under the surface.

‘‘TIn our dry climate, I always cure cowpea
hay in the shock, shocking immediately after
the cutter and putting about eight rows in one
shock row. If I can get help, I prefer shocking
entirely by hand, as many cowpeas are lost in
raking. In favorable weather, the crop will
cure enough to stack in three weeks. In regions
of greater rainfall, shocks should be made
smaller and high and narrow. The hay will
not shed water readily and should be stored in
a mow or the stacks should be covered with
some material which will shed water.

‘‘T plant the Speckled Crowder exclusively,
as it yields fully a half more seed than any other
variety I have tried, besides yielding a heavy
crop of hay.’’

PEANUTS

177. Peanuts earned a place among the sure
feed crops in Oklahoma in the dry season of
1911. The total acreage planted to this crop
was not large but it was for the most part
widely scattered and the returns were generally
profitable.

178. In Western Oklahoma, the returns from
planting the Spanish peanut have been care-

112 SURE FEED CROPS

fully investigated by George Bishop and the
information gathered up to the fall of 1911 has
been reported by him as follows:

‘‘My attention was attracted to the hardiness
of the Spanish peanut when I found a farmer
in Western Oklahoma who had been growing
them for several years. The first year I visited
his farm was in 1909, and he had planted ten
acres of peanuts and ninety acres of corn. This
turned out to be the first of the recent series of
dry years. The corn was planted in April and
the peanuts on May 10. The unfavorable crop
season cut the corn yield to thirteen bushels
per acre, while the peanuts yielded forty bushels
per acre. In 1910, the difference was even
grector, though neither the corn nor the pea-
nuts made as much as the year before. Again
in 1921, when the corn was an entire failure,
the peanuts endured the heat and winds until
the rains came in July, then went on and made
a vield of twenty-five bushels per acre.

‘‘Another field in the same locality was
planted in alternate rows of corn and peanuts.
This was done for the special benefit of the
corn and not for the peanuts. The intention
was to give the corn a wider feeding area for
its roots at maturing time, due to the later
planting of the peanut. The peanuts, being
planted six or eight weeks later, would not
naturally use their share of the moisture. This —
eorn field remained green several weeks longer
than fields adjoining, planted in the regular

THE FORAGE 113

way. The corn, though using the peanuts’
moisture for several weeks, was compelled to
give up before rains came July 19. The peanuts
went on and finally made a yield of fifteen
bushels per acre. This was undoubtedly as
severe a test as could be asked for.’’

179. As to planting peanuts, Mr. Bishop says:
‘<The peanut is usually planted about or a little
later than cotton planting time where cotton is
grown. For Western Oklahoma and the Texas
Panhandle, the time for planting would be from
the tenth of May on through June. JI have
records for 1911 in latitude thirty-five of plant-
ings, one on the tenth and another on the fif-
teenth of July, each making and maturing good
yields before frost. The peanut is inclined to
be a little slow in its early growth. For this
reason, the ground should always be warmed
up and well prepared before the seed is planted.
They will do better in a shallow lister furrow.
This gives them the protection afforded by the
furrow and the needed warmth of the surface
soil. If a regular peanut planter is used, it is
better to make the opening furrow as small as
the peanut will drop into easily. The planter
running in the bottom of the lister furrow
makes this opening in the firm, moist soil; the
peanut dropping into it has the benefit of sub-
moisture from three sides and a stand is almost
certain, rain or shine. The Hastern farmer
drops the seed in loose, moist soil and the rains

114 SURE FEED CROPS

come and germinate it, but the dry farmer of
the West must place the seed in positive con-
tact with the sub-moisture, so that he will get a
stand, whether it rains in one week or three.

180. ‘‘The early cultivation of the peanut is
practically the same as for cotton. If the land
is weedy or crabgzassy, nothing will do quite
as good work as a fourteen tooth harrow cul-
tivator. They have a lever adjustment and can
be set for the width of the lister furrow. Re-
move the front and back teeth and go right
down the row, cultivating each side. If a little
loose dirt is thrown on the peanut plants, no
harm will be done. If a heavy rain forms a
erust on the peanuts before they come up, the
front and back teeth of this same harrow may
be adjusted so as to break the crust immediately
over the peanuts while the outside teeth serve as
runners to prevent them from going too deep.”’

181. A bushel of Spanish peanuts to the acre
will put one pod each twelve to fourteen inches
in rows forty-two inches apart. Concerning
preparation of seed for planting, H. M. Wolver-
ton of Stephens county, Central Oklahoma,
says: ‘‘The peanuts can be soaked twenty-four
to thirty-six hours just before planting. If the
moles and gophers are bad in your soil, dissolve
a five cent bar of common laundry soap in a
gallon of boiling water and as soon as all has
dissolved, add one pint of kerosene and stir for

THE FORAGE 115

ten minutes. Mix this in a barrel with enough
cold water to soak two bushels of peanuts and
the moles and gophers will not eat them.”’

182. Hilling up is not necessary nor desirable,
according to Mr. Wolverton. He says: ‘‘The
plant, as soon as it has a few leaves on it, begins
to bloom and the blooms follow the growth and
continually run the little pegs down until frost.
I have tried hilling with a hoe and plow, also
cultivating level, and I can tell very little dif-
ference, if any, in the yield. If hay is desired,
cultivate level all through the season, and when
the vines begin turning yellow, they are ripe
and should either be mowed or dug for hay and
peanuts. If they are to be hogged off, the hogs
ean be turned in after mowing.’’ Clean, shallow
cultivation, preventing the formation of a crust
on the soil, should be continued through the
season.

183. Peanuts are harvested in a variety of
ways. George Bishop, in the report previously
referred to, says: ‘‘Most of the peanuts which
have been grown in the West so far have been
harvested by hogs and for the present, this is
undoubtedly the best plan. In a few places,
however, peanuts are grown for market. The
peanuts are loosened up by running the share
of a turning plow with the moldboard removed,
just deep enough to cut below the peanuts. The
vines and nuts are then raked into windrows
with a hay rake, and in a day or two, depending

116 SURE FEED CROPS

upon how quickly they cure, they are put into
stacks convenient for threshing. The peanuts
are then threshed with a special peanut thresher
and the hay is saved for feed. The practice of
mowing the hay and turning in the hogs to har-
vest the peanuts is the one which appeals to me
as the plan for the beginner. It was at first
thought that the vines were necessary for the
cheapest gains, as hogs eat more or less of them.
But recent tests have shown that hogs will make
practically the same gains when fed on peanuts
alone and when turned on a field from which the
vines have not been removed.’’

184. Feeding to hogs is recommended by the
Arkansas Experiment Station as the _ best
method of disposing of peanuts. A recent pub- —
lication of that station says: ‘‘This method
saves the expense of pulling and hauling, and if
portable fences are used so that the hogs can
graze over but a small area at a time, the waste
of peanuts will be greatly reduced. It is generally
considered that an acre of Spanish peanuts will
furnish grazing for eight or ten hogs, weighing
in the neighborhood of two hundred pounds, for
about thirty days. However, this depends upon
the yields, size of the hogs, and the quantity of
other feeds fed in addition to the peanuts. For
the best results, it is advisable to feed corn in
addition to the peanuts. By so doing, not only
will greater gains be secured, but a much better
quality of pork will be produced than if the

THE FORAGE 117

peanuts are fed alone. If corn is quite high in
price, it might be more economical to produce
the bulk of the gains on peanuts alone and
simply finish the hogs off on corn during the
last three weeks of the fattening period. When
fattened on peanuts alone, a soft, oily pork is
produced which does not generally find high
favor upon the market.’’ Ground kafircorn or
milomaize may of course be fed instead of corn
to hogs being fattened on peanuts.

185. Peanuts furnish rich feed for cattle and
other farm stock, as well as for hogs. The
whole peanut plant, vines and nuts, contains
18.4 percent. protein, 40.1 percent. carbohy-
drates, and 21.5 percent. fat. Peanut hay, from
which the peanuts have been removed, contains
10.0 percent. protein, 42.0 percent. carbohy-
drates, and 3.6 percent. fat. For purposes of
direct comparison, wheat bran contains 15.4 per-
cent. protein, 60.4 percent. carbohydrates, and
4.0 percent. fat. Alfalfa hay contains 15.4 per-
cent. protein, 65.8 percent. carbohydrates, and
1.4 percent. fat. Peanut hay may be used very
profitably in feeding all classes of cattle, the
methods being similar to those followed in feed-
ing alfalfa and cowpea hay. (152, 172.) The
ration should be balanced by feeding ground
kafircorn or milomaize whenever peanut hay is
being fed.

186. Markets for peanuts are certain to be
developed as production increases. The yields

118 SURE FEED CROPS

run from forty to one hundred bushels per acre
and sometimes higher. Aside from the supply
required to take care of the demand for roasted
and salted peanuts, the manufacture of peanut
oil and peanut butter is increasing. Both are
being used more extensively as human food.
Peanut cake, from which the oil has been
pressed, is a rich feed for livestock, containing
47.6 percent. protein, 28.8 percent. carbohy-
drates, and 8.0 percent. fat. The ease and profit
with which peanuts may be disposed of by feed-
ing to livestock, if the market is unsatisfactory,
and the fact that, like alfalfa and cowpeas, pea-
nuts obtain from the air a portion of the nitro-
gen required for their growth, make this one of
the sure feed crops to which increasing acreages
should be planted in the Central Southwest.

SORGHUM

187. Sweet sorghum or cane, as it is commonly
called, is one of the surest of feed crops. The
season has not yet been so dry in Oklahoma
that sorghum, planted at some time between
April 1st and July 15th, has not produced a fair
yield of rough feed. Unless abundant rough
feed is assured from kafircorn fodder, alfalfa,
cowpeas, and peanuts, a reasonable acreage of
sorghum should be included in every season’s
planting.

188. ‘‘Hard on the land’’ is an indictment

THE FORAGE 119

most frequently brought against sorghum. The
ability of the crop to withstand extremes of
drouth and still produce feed naturally carries
with it the effect of drying the soil thoroughly
and filling the surface soil with a mass of fibrous
roots which decay very slowly if undisturbed.
An ordinary crop. of sorghum, amounting to
from two to seven tons of cured sorghum hay
per acre, also unquestionably draws heavily
upon the supply of available plant food in the
soil. The thorough drying of the soil by this
erop and the failure to break up the land in the
late fall or early winter in preparation for sue-
ceeding crops is responsible for short yields of
other crops following sorghum. This may in
very large measure be overcome by following
the same methods of soil preparation as have
a) suggested for kafircorn and milomaize.
2.

189. Rich land is needed for the production
of heavy crops of sorghum hay, and it pays well
to use the stable manure on land on which
sorghum is to be grown. Thin, shallow upland
soils should not be expected to produce profit-
able crops of sorghum hay without heavy ma-
nuring. The average soils of the Central South-
west will, however, produce heavy yields of
sorghum hay in average seasons and fair yields
in seasons of extreme drouth.

190. For hay, sorghum may either be broad-
casted or put in with a grain drill, using about

120 SURE FEED CROPS

one bushel of seed to the acre. The land should
be plowed and harrowed, and the better the
preparation in advance of the time of sowing,
the more certain the yields under unfavorable
conditions. The sowing may be done at almost
any time from April until July, thus making it
possible to work this crop in as a eatch crop,
and occasionally to sow it on a portion of the
wheat and oats stubble if chinch bugs are not
sufficiently numerous to interfere. For the best
quality of hay, sorghum should be cut just as
it is heading out. When cut at this stage, the
food materials which later are concentrated in
the seed are uniformly distributed throughout
the plant and the stems have not become woody.
The general custom is to cure sorghum hay in
large piles, after having permitted the crop to
wilt and partially dry in the swath and wind-
row. Often these piles remain in the field until
fed, but there is naturally much waste as a re-
sult of this method. A better plan is to stack
the hay in jarge stacks after it has well cured
and to be particular about topping out the
stacks so that they will not take water. A few
farmers in the Central Southwest have adopted
the custom of always having a few stacks of
sorghum hay left over in the spring so as to
make absolutely sure of an abundance of rough
feed for all of the farm livestock whenever an
exceedingly dry season comes along.

191. For seed sorghum is planted and culti-

THE FORAGE 121

vated in the same manner as kafircorn and milo-
maize. (12.) The varieties most commonly
grown are Black Amber, Orange, and Sumac.
It is well to make a contract with some dealer
in seeds before planting a large acreage to
sorghum for seed purposes. The market for
sorghum seed is confined to the demand for
planting purposes and in seasons of heavy pro-
duction the price is very low.

192. Pasturing sorghum with cattle is at-
tended with some danger. When the crop is
stunted in growth either by drouth or frost,
Prussie acid, which is the poisonous principle
of potassium cyanide, develops and cattle eat-
ing of such sorghum die very quickly. Losses
from this cause do not appear to be so frequent
in Oklahoma and Texas as in Kansas and Ne-
braska, and many cattlemen regularly utilize
sorghum for pasture, especially for animals
necessarily confined to small lots. Hungry
cattle turned into a field of succulent sorghum
are also very susceptible to bloat and precau-
tions are necessary until the cattle become ac-
customed to the sorghum pasture.

193. The widest use of sorghum as a pasture
crop is for hogs, though it produces but small
gains, and is valuable chiefly for its succulence.
It produces an abundance of forage during dry,
hot weather, when other crops make but little
erowth. Usually it is ready to pasture within
six weeks after sowing and the hogs should not

122 SURE FEED CROPS

be turned in until the growth is at least one and
one-half feet high. About one acre of pasture
should be provided for each twelve to fifteen
head of 100-pound hogs and a supplementary
ration of grain is necessary if the hogs are to
be expected to make much growth. Losses of
hogs pasturing on sorghum, due to sorghum
poisoning, are very rare.

194, The feeding value of sorghum hay is
very similar to that of corn fodder and kafir-
corn and milomaize fodders from which the
heads have been removed. It may profitably be
substituted for prairie hay in the feeding of
horses and may form a very large share of the
ration of stock cattle receiving a light feed of
cottonseed meal or cottonseed cake. Steers may
be wintered very economically and _ satisfac-
torily on nothing but sorghum hay and two
pounds of cottonseed cake per day per head.
Sorghum hay cannot replace alfalfa, cowpea, or
peanut hay in either cattle or steer feeding, but
it may be used as a supplementary feed from
which the cattle may eat their fill after having
had a properly balanced ration of ground kafir-
corn or milomaize and cottonseed meal or
ground kafircorn or milomaize and limited
amounts of alfalfa, cowpea, or peanut hay. In
seasons of extremely high prices of grain, stock
may be wintered fairly well with no other feed
than sorghum hay, and an abundance of it on
hand at all times will bring greater profits to

THE FORAGE 123

stockmen than can be had from depending upon
the pasture furnished by stalk fields.

195. Very sandy soils may be quickly im-
proved in texture by growing on them and plow-
ing under a crop of sorghum just as it is head-
ing out. No other crop will so quickly furnish
a large amount of vegetable matter which, when
decayed, becomes incorporated with the par-
ticles of sand and causes them to stick together
more closely, thus improving the ability of the
soil to hold moisture. The growing of sorghum
on the land and plowing it under adds nothing
to the supply of plant food in the soil, but if
turned under in July and the land is not planted
to a crop until spring, beneficial results almost
invariably follow if the soil is very sandy.

196. Sorghum smut sometimes interferes with
the production of satisfactory sorghum seed.
This may be prevented by the same treatment
recommended for the seed of kafircorn. (82.)

MILLET

197. German millet is the variety commonly

own. Two pecks of seed per acre are broad-
easted or drilled on land previously plowed and
harrowed. To insure a crop in seasons of short
rainfall, millet should be sown in May or early
June; in seasons with ample July rainfall, it
may be sown as late as the middle of that
month. Millet is largely used as a catch crop,

124 SURE FEED CROPS

in much the same manner as cowpeas, and for
that reason, the acreage is variable.

198. Texas millet, or Colorado grass, is a com-
mon weed in portions of Texas and has been
reported from a few localities in Oklahoma.
Though possessing the habits of a weed, it is
useful as a hay crop. Like all millets, this is
an annual, but the seed shatters and remains in
the soil until the following season. It makes
but little growth early in the season and does
not interfere with the growth of cultivated
crops. After corn, for example, has matured,
this variety of millet makes a good growth
which may be cut for hay.

199. Millet hay should be cut while in bloom
and before the seed have begun maturing. If
mature seed is in the hay, not only do the stems
become woody so that they are not eaten well
by stock but the seed has an injurious effect on
the kidneys of the animals which eat it. If cut
while in bloom, millet hay may be fed to horses
and cattle and has about the same feeding value
as good prairie hay. With diminishing acre-
ages of native meadows, it is probable that
millet will be more extensively grown. But the
production of large amounts of kafircorn fodder
and sorghum hay may make the growing of
millet entirely unnecessary unless the individ-
ual has a special preference for it.

THE FORAGE 125

SILAGE

200. Succulent feed at all times, if it can be
provided, is of great value in maintaining a
regular flow of milk from dairy cattle and in
keeping stock cattle in thrifty, growing condli-
tion. Decreasing acreages of native pasture,
short wheat pasture through several winters,
and drouthy seasons have combined to interest
the farmers of the Central Southwest in silos
as a means of storing succulent feed for their
cattle. They are seeking some regular plan of
storing feed which will not fail in seasons of ex-
treme drouth, and which will be profitable in
normal seasons. Prior to 1909, relatively few
farmers in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas had
built silos, though their use has been quite gen-
eral in the Central States for many years. Since
then, large numbers of silos have been erected
in Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Texas Pan-
handle.

201. Tt will pay the farmer who has, or can
get, twenty or more cattle to feed throughout
the year, to build a silo and regularly grow a
crop with which to fill it. But it is exceedingly
doubtful if it will pay anyone to erect a silo for
the purpose of storing sun-scorched corn fodder
in the occasional years when drouth prevents
the formation of ears. The man who buys a silo
intending to use it every month in the year as a
means of storing succulent feed for cattle is on

126 SURE FEED CROPS

the right track; if he has the cattle or can get
them. The silo should be an integral part of the
livestock equipment to be used every year; not
a temporary expedient for use only in dry years.

202. The silo is a big can, air-tight except at
the top, in which green fodder of any sort, with
solid stems, may be preserved in much the same
manner as fruits and vegetables are canned and
preserved for human food. The process is dif-
ferent but the result is essentially the same.
The fodder, cut into short lengths, not over an
inch long, and firmly tramped in the silo, settles
and undergoes a fermentation which develops
heat and drives out the air and sterilizes the
product so that no further fermentation can
take place until more air is admitted. The cut
fodder at the top of the silo decays more com-
pletely and forms a covering which prevents
the air from penetrating to a depth of more

than one to two feet. Silage is canned, green
fodder.

203. Many types of silos are in use. The
Kansas Experiment Station at Manhattan and
the Oklahoma Experiment Station at Stillwater
have published bulletins describing different
types. Manufacturers of Portland cement have
prepared plans and specifications for building
concrete silos which may be obtained from al-
most any dealer in Portland cement. Vitrified
hollow tile, properly curved for cylindrical silo
construction, are coming into extensive use in

THE FORAGE 127

Towa. Cylindrical stave silos are manufactured
by several firms who advertise in the farm
papers. Numerous manufacturers are selling
silos built of sections of galvanized iron with
interlocking joints, painted inside with a coat-
ing of gas tar to prevent corrosion by the acids
of the silage. Some silos are built partially
above and partially below the ground and a
few are repeating the original plan of building
silos like cisterns, which has long ago been dis-
carded where silos are in general use. The re-
quirements of use should be kept in mind when
deciding upon a type of silo to build. It must
be air-tight except at the top; must not dry out
during very dry spells and permit evaporation
of moisture through the walls; must not blow
down easily or require close attention to keep
in safe condition, either when full or empty;
and must be so placed and constructed that the
silage may be fed out with the minimum amount
of labor. It should also be durable and require
the minimum of annual repairs and attention.

204. The size of the silo should be such that
not less than two inches of silage is fed from
the surface each day and it is better if four to
six inches are fed daily. The higher the silo,
within reasonable limits, the better the silage
settles and keeps. A silo fifteen feet in diameter
by twenty-nine feet high will hold one hundred
and ten tons. It will take about seven to ten
acres of average corn or kafircorn to fill this

128 SURE FEED CROPS

and it will provide forty pounds per day per
head for twenty-six cattle for six months. If
double this amount of feed is wanted, two silos
will be better than a single silo of double this
capacity.

205. Crops for silage should be regularly
planted for that purpose. Corn is the earliest
crop which may be grown for filling the silo.
It should be planted as early as is safe for the
locality, in the same manner as if the corn was
being grown for the grain alone. An early va-
riety is best, so that it may be matured, if pos-
sible, before the dry summer weather which so
frequently reduces the yields. If drouth pre-
vents the formation of ears, the fodder should
be cut and put in the silo before the leaves have
died. If conditions are favorable, the corn
should be allowed to nearly mature, having
passed the roasting ear stage before being put
in the silo. In all of the Central Southwest,
there should be planted each year a sufficient
acreage of kafircorn to fill the silos. It should
be planted at the earliest date which experience
in the locality has shown to give the highest
average yields of grain. There will then be no
question about something with which to fill the
silo being produced. Sorghum and milomaize
may also be put in the silo but they are not as
satisfactory as kafircorn and corn.

206. Filling the silo requires considerable
labor, but for only a short time. The kafircorn

THE FORAGE 129

or corn may be cut with a corn binder or sled
cutters. It should be placed on low wagons and
at once hauled to the silo where a power cutter
is arranged to cut the fodder into pieces not
more than an inch long and blow it into the silo.
From three to five farmers might well join in
ownership of the power and cutter and help
each other in the work of filling. Men with
threshing outfits might also make silo-filling
part of their business. The cut fodder should
be evenly distributed and well tramped, the
middle being kept full and the tramping being
heaviest around the walls. If the silo is of wood
or concrete, the walls should be thoroughly wet
down with water before filling begins. If the
silo is of galvanized iron, it should be thor-
oughly cleaned inside and painted with gas tar
a few weeks before filling. Unless the fodder
has dried up beyond the proper stage for put-
ting in the silo, it is not necessary to add water
as the silo is being filled. But if the fodder is
dry, wetting down with water will help put it
in condition to settle and keep well. Do not
put salt on the silage.

207. Sealing the silo after it is filled is accom-
plished by thoroughly wetting down the top
two feet of cut fodder, then covering it with a
foot or two of chaff or short straw and wetting
this thoroughly, then letting it alone and not
walking around over it to ‘‘see if it’s keeping
all right.’? Fermentation will soon begin and
this will drive some of the moisture up through

130 SURE FEED CROPS

the wet layer on top. This will partially decay
and effectually seal the top. A roof on a silo
adds to its appearance but is not necessary.

208. Corn silage put up in July may be used
to supplement the pastures. Feeding may begin
as soon as filling is completed. The succulence
of silage adds greatly to its feeding value but
its real value as feed depends upon the amount
of grain which it contains. Cattle of all sorts
fed silage may be expected to do about as well
as if they had an abundance of grass pasture.
After part or all of the corn silage has been fed
out, the kafirecorn which should always be
planted for this purpose may be put into the
silo at any time before frost. The fact that the
stalks and leaves of kafircorn remain green for
a long time after the grain has matured makes
the period during which the crop may be put
into the silo longer than with corn. The cut
kafircorn should be put in right on top of the
corn silage and, if not to be fed at once, sealed
after filling is completed. The spoiled silage
at the top should be removed when feeding
begins and the silage should be taken from the
entire area of the top at least once every two
days.

209. Silage is rough feed and should not be
expected to take the place of grain in the ration.
While it is possible for cattle to make fair gains
when fed silage made from kafircorn or corn
containing a full crop of grain, the amount of

THE FORAGE 131

grain supplied by the silage is not enough for
the best returns. Steers were fattened in Okla-
homa during the winter of 1911-1912 on nothing
but silage and cottonseed cake and the high
prices of kafircorn and corn made this the most
practicable ration. A ration of silage and one
to two pounds of cottonseed meal or cake per
day per head will carry stock cattle through
the winter in excellent condition and maintain
them in fine shape to begin feeding. Alfalfa,
cowpea, or peanut hay may take the place of
cottonseed meal for such purposes, but some
feed rich in protein should always be supplied
when silage is being fed. Silage supplements
alfalfa hay and each adds to the value of the
other in general feeding.

210. For fattening steers, silage is coming
into increasingly extensive use. The stockman
who makes steer feeding a part of his farm
operations, and many more of them should do
so, will find a silo a valuable investment. The
grain ration should consist of four to five parts
of ground kafircorn, milomaize, or corn mixed
with one part of cottonseed meal, fed in such
gradually increasing amounts as the cattle eat
up clean without going ‘‘ off feed’’. From twenty-
five to thirty-five pounds of silage should be fed
per day per head and the ration will be im-
proved if a few pounds of alfalfa, cowpea, or
peanut hay are fed. Variety in the ration, if
properly balanced, quickly shows its benefits in
increased rapidity of gains and better finish of

132 SURE FEED CROPS

the cattle. It is a mistake to expect that silage
alone will supply a satisfactory feed for fatten-
ing steers. But many experiments have shown
that when properly fed as rough feed, supple-
menting a balanced ration of grain, silage is of
much greater value than the fodder from a like
acreage of kafircorn or corn prepared for feed-
ing in any other manner.

211. Silage has long been used as. feed for
dairy cattle and it is only in recent years that
it has been extensively used in steer feeding.
The succulence of silage is a great factor in
maintaining the flow of milk. But as in steer
feeding, heavy production should not be ex-
pected from feeding nothing but silage to dairy
cows. ‘T'hey should be fed ground kafircorn,
milomaize, or corn mixed with about one-fourth
as much cottonseed meal, or one of these grains
and alfalfa, cowpea, or peanut hay in addition
to a liberal ration of silage. The amount of
silage fed will depend upon the ability of indi-
vidual cows to consume it profitably and will
vary from thirty to fifty pounds per day per
head. The amount of grain fed should vary
with the milk production of the different cows,
this being a measure of their ability to turn
feed into milk at a profit. A dairyman with ten
or more cows can scarcely afford to be without a
silo in regions of short rainfall where pastures
quickly dry up and periods of excessively high
prices for feed are not infrequent.

THE FORAGE 183

212. Cash value of silage. One great point in
favor of silage is that it is not marketable. It
ean be sold only for feeding at the silo, thus
keeping elements of fertility which it contains
on the farm which produced it. Perhaps $2.50
per ton may be taken as a fair average cash
value of silage. Fed to good steers or to dairy
eattle, it will turn out more than this, just as
under average conditions, kafircorn, milomaize,
or corn when fed bring returns above their
market value. The silo does not offer an easy
way to prosperity to men inexperienced in the
feeding of livestock. But it does furnish a
means whereby the careful stockman may
establish his business on a firmer foundation
than when he depends upon dry feed alone.

213. Hogs will eat silage and steers being fat-
tened should always be followed by hogs. Sil-
age should not be expected to do more than
replace pasture in hog feeding.

214. Idle horses may be fed some silage to ad-
vantage but silage in any considerable amounts
is not good feed for working horses. Horses fed
silage should also receive hay. Silage can fill
many places profitably in the farms of the Cen-
tral Southwest but its extensive use in horse
feeding is not one of them.

THE PASTURE

215. Grass is first in importance to stockmen.
Producing heavy yields on fertile lands, cover-
ing rough, untillable lands and causing them
to be productive, grass requires no labor in the
harvest and the returns in the way of added
weight of the livestock pastured upon it are
practically net. The constant desire of the
stockman is for nutritious grasses on which his
flocks and herds may graze, taking on cheap
growth and gains in weight without impover-
ishing the soil, but often adding to its produc-
tivity.

216. Grasses adapt themselves in but small
degree to new and unfavorable environment.
Hach variety and kind finds its best develop-
- ment under conditions of soil and climate fitted
to its habit of growth and responds but feebly
to attempts to establish it where the conditions
requisite to its natural growth do not exist. A
compelling sentiment seems to drive settlers on
new lands to attempts to establish there the
grasses of the pasture and meadow on the old
home farm. The lawn about the new home
must be sodded with the grass which carpeted
the soil under the trees about the old home-
stead, or it will not seem like home,

134

THE PASTURE 135

217. Native grasses of the prairie, with but
few exceptions, soon disappear under the close
occupancy of farm stock. Sloping soils under
clean cultivation soon develop into gullies and
the sand and silt are carried down and spread
over the fertile bottom lands below. Weeds
take the place of nutritious grasses in the pas-
tures and the feeding of livestock through the
summers becomes an increasingly difficult prob-
lem. Many of the grass problems of the states
of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas are still un-
solved.

BERMUDA GRASS

218. In 1892, immediately after the Oklahoma
Agricultural Experiment Station was estab-
lished, one of the first things done was the sow-
ing of the seed of more than two hundred va-
rieties of grasses gathered from all parts of the
world. While at that time, there was an abund-
ance of native grasses, it was recognized that in
all probability the grass question would still
be unanswered when it came to be of pressing
importance. Seed of the most promising grasses
selected from these, and others as they were
obtained, were sown every year thereafter, and
such kinds as are best propagated from root-
stocks were transplanted and carefully tended.

219. Fourteen years’ results from this work
were summed up by the writer, in Bulletin 70

136 SURE FEED CROPS

of the Oklahoma station, issued in June, 1906,
as follows:

‘‘When once established, hardy bermuda
grass is not easily killed out. There need be no
fear of its ‘taking the country’ and becoming a
pest this far north. The only complaint here is
that, after having been growing on the station
farm for fourteen years, it has ‘taken’ so little
of it. But bermuda grass does not work well in
a rotation. Its place is for permanent pasture,
for hay on good land subject to overflow, and
for a solid covering for the lawn and the usual
muddy spots about the house and feed lots. The
station has it growing and giving a profitable
yield of pasture on land so full of white alkali
that no other crop will grow. In spots, it has
been under water for three weeks and kept on
growing, thus showing its adaptability to over-
flow lands. Eighteen inches of tough clay have
been tamped down on an established sod of ber-
muda grass and in six weeks, the grass made its
way through and formed a sod on top. Strips
of bermuda sod have been placed four feet apart
across gullies by the roadside, and within two
years, it was necessary to plow out the gutter
to furnish a place for the water to run. Ditches
in cultivated fields, so deep as to be impassable
for farm machinery, have been filled in one
season by the dirt caught by bermuda grass
planted in the hard soil in the bottom of the ©
ditch. New pond banks have been sodded over

THE PASTURE 137

in one season with a tough mat of bermuda
which absolutely prevents washing.

‘“ After ten years of futile attempts to make the
college campus presentable by sowing seed o7
Kentucky blue grass, orchard grass, meadow
fescue, all the clovers, and a great variety of
mixtures of seed of other grasses, bermuda
grass has in three seasons covered it with a
heavy sod which is green from April to October
when grass ought to be green. And during the
winter, there is a clean covering over the whole
surface, without mud when it rains or dust when
it blows.

‘‘Sometime, a more satisfactory grass than
hardy bermuda grass may be developed in Ok-
lahoma. But after having repeatedly sown
every grass that could be found, through four-
teen seasons in Oklahoma, the station has only
this variety of bermuda grass to show for the
work. It is satisfactory in every respect in this
locality and trials which have been made of it
elsewhere in the Territory indicate its future
usefulness over the entire area. In the north-
western fourth of Oklahoma, and along the
northern boundary, it may not be entirely satis-
factory, but there is every reason to expect it
to provide profitable pasturage under suitable
treatment even there.”’

220. Bermuda grass is probably a native of
India. It was introduced into Georgia in 1812
and from there soon spread to the other south-
ern states. It is the one pasture grass of out-

138 SURE FEED CROPS

standing value for the south, just as Kentucky
blue grass is the standard pasture in regions
naturally adapted to its growth. But the pro-
duction of cotton and not of livestock was for
so long the chief industry of the southern states,
and since the habit of growth of bermuda grass
caused it to persist in the cotton fields, it was
long regarded as a pest instead of a benefactor.
In Oklahoma, the northerner has wanted grass
and many have spent years in vain endeavor to
establish Kentucky blue grass, refusing to ac-
cept bermuda, the one grass which will persist
and furnish pasture. The southerner, recollect-
ing the days spent in hoeing out bermuda grass
in the cotton fields, will have none of it and re-
fuses to accept the gift which Nature has
offered. These transplanted sentiments and
prejudices are slowly being overcome and ber-
muda grass is coming to be recognized as the
only pasture grass for the greater portion of
Oklahoma.

221. Hardy bermuda grass is merely bermuda
grass which has grown in a given locality until
it has become acclimated through natural selec-
tion and possesses increased ability over the
original stock to withstand extremely low tem-
peratures. Bermuda grass grown from seed is
almost always severely damaged by very cold
weather and often only a few plants survive.
These in time spread and cover the ground. A
still colder winter will kill many of the plants,
but these, in turn, will occupy the land. The

THE PASTURE 139

bermuda grass which survives these unfavor-
able conditions starts into growth earlier in the
spring than the original stock, is not killed by
hard freezes, and is called hardy because of
these qualities.

222. Bermuda grass has limits on the north
and west beyond which it is not profitable as a
pasture grass. Bulletin 175 of the Kansas Ex-
periment Station, says: ‘‘At this station, it
usually winter-kills, but in the southern counties
of the state it is comparatively hardy, and
farmers there have reported that they have
grown it successfully for periods of from four
to eight years.’’ Bermuda grass has not proven
entirely satisfactory in the northern half of
Oklahoma west of the ninety-eighth meridian.
Its limits of profitable growth in western Texas
have not been defined, though probably they
will closely correspond with the limits of profit-
able cotton culture.

223. Starting bermuda grass from seed is not
satisfactory. It should always be propagated
from sod of the grass which has become accli-
mated to conditions. Many years of natural
selection may thus be made to contribute to the
obtaining of a profitable pasture at once. The
quickest stand will be obtained from planting
bermuda roots at favorable times from April to
July in well prepared land. If bermuda roots
are planted as potatoes are planted, in rows
wide enough apart for a cultivation or two, the

140 SURE FEED CROPS

pieces of sod being entirely covered, success is
almost certain except in seasons of extreme
drouth. Methods of planting vary from this
very widely. Bermuda may be started by drop-
ping roots in furrows as the land is being
plowed shallow; by dropping roots in lister fur-
rows just before the ditches are filled when cul-
tivating crops; by loading the sod in a manure
spreader and scattering the roots over roughly
plowed land, disking them in; by dropping roots
on the surface of the soil during wet spells and
forcing them into the soil with a forked stick;
or by any other plan which will bring either
the runners or underground stems of bermuda
grass in contact with moist soil which is warm
enough to stimulate growth. Tearing the sods
to pieces and stringing the underground stems
and runners in a furrow where they may be
completely covered is more likely to produce a
satisfactory sod quickly than carefully setting
out small pieces of sod or small bunches of
roots with the tops exposed. In selecting sod
for planting, that which shows evidence of most
vigor and which starts into growth earliest in
the spring should be chosen.

224. Results of experience with bermuda
grass in Oklahoma have been reported in great
numbers, the writer having collected them dur-
ing a period of fifteen years. They represent
wide variations due to the time and manner of
planting, and the character of the soil and cli-
mate and treatment. It is thought that a few

THE PASTURE 141

of them, collected in the spring of 1911, will
give a clearer idea of what to expect than can
be obtained from an extended discussion.

225. Texas County, Western Oklahoma. ‘‘In
May, 1908, we planted five sacks of bermuda
roots as you would plant potatoes. The season
was dry but the grass nearly covered the
ground. It winter-killed badly, but we plowed
it up and scattered the live roots and the grass
covered the land in mid-winter in 1909. It was
a very dry year and the runners died, leaving
only the main bunch. It winter-killed back to
about half a stand but I thought it would suc-
ceed and broke more land by the side of the
strip where we had bermuda planted. We scat-
tered the sods in the spring of 1910 and it cov-
ered the ground by mid-summer. Now, we do
not have a spear of bermuda left, and I am con-
vineed that at this altitude and with our ex-
tremely dry climate, bermuda is a failure.’’

226. Beaver County, Western Oklahoma. ‘‘In
the spring of 1905, I received a package of ber-
muda roots sent to me by mail from Hill county,
Texas. In the spring of 1908 I planted one-
quarter acre with roots; in the spring of 1909 I
planted three-quarters of an acre, making one
acre in all. In the spring of 1910 I thought it
was all killed and I plowed a part of the land
and planted it in watermelons. The grass
began to come out and I did not make many
melons on it. This spring it was all killed out

142 - SURE FEED CROPS

again and I broke a part of the sod and double
disked it and drilled the land in cane. I in-
tended to plant out several acres of the roots in
1910, but it was killed out so I could not get the
roots to plant. { thought after it came out so
in 1910 that I would plant quite a lot this spring
but it killed out worse than it was last year;
so I have decided that bermuda grass is a
failure and will not do to depend on in Beaver
county for pasture. I have not got any better
prospect for pasture and not as regular stand
as [ had two or three years ago. It kills out so
in winter that the weeds take it unless I plow
it In spring and then it takes all summer to get
ready to pasture. I see some say that the
drouth killed their grass. My bermuda has
stood the dry weather as well as my alfalfa, but
it is the freezes that killed mine. It takes it

too long in spring to get started to depend on
it for pasture here.’’

227. Alfalfa County, Western Oklahoma.
‘‘Several years ago I received some roots from
the Experiment Station and they have done
very well. Last winter was very hard on it and,
in fact, I thought it dead, but by the 15th of
April it had started out nicely and at present is
looking fine.’’

228. Alfalfa County, Western Oklahoma.
‘‘Planted an acre of bermuda in April, 1910,
securing the roots from a neighbor. Only about
a half stand came up on account of drouth. Part

THE PASTURE 143

of the land was alkali and part sandy. It
sodded over the alkali ground within ninety
days after planting, but did not spread much
on the sandy land. A dozen hogs ran on it
after it got started and plenty of growth was
left for winter protection on the alkali land.
It is now apparently dead on the sandy land
but about half of it is started on alkali spots.”’

229. Grant County, Western Oklahoma. ‘‘1
secured a few roots from the Experiment Sta-
tion at Stillwater on June 11, 1906, and have
worked earnestly to get my washy hillsides to
bermuda ever since, but have failed. I have ten
acres of hillside with clay subsoil that I have
put in bermuda three successive years and had
it to die on account of drouth and cold winters
each time. Had intended to try it again this
spring but find my first patch that has been
planted five years so badly killed out that I
have given it up. I have been enthusiastic about
bermuda all along and have caused much of it
to be planted around here, furnishing the roots
free, but last winter has pretty nearly settled
it in this neighborhood. I have not pastured it
any, as it did not get far enough along except
hi first planting which I kept for getting roots

rom.’’

230. Custer County, Western Oklahoma. ‘‘I
planted about nine sacks of roots last year; put
them out in May on about two acres of land.
We had good rains shortly after and the grass

144 SURE FEED CROPS

came up and grew fine right through the dry
weather in the summer. We had one good rain
in August, which started it growing again and
by October the ground was almost covered. I
felt good to think that I had a start of bermuda
at last, but some of my friends told me that it
would die out when winter came. One of them
told me that he had been trying it for several
years and it always winter-killed. Another has
had the same experience. Bermuda is all right
where it will grow, but it will never do in the
northwestern part of the state.’’

231. Custer County, Western Oklahoma. ‘‘I
have known bermuda grass for fifteen years.
In the southern states it has taken many a val-
uable piece ef land and entirely ruined it for
farming purposes, but produced a wonderful lot
of hay and pasture. There is plenty of better
feed than bermuda hay but for pasture there is
nothing in the southern states that excels it. It
comes early in spring and stays until frost and
it doesn’t matter much whether it rains or not,
it stays green. In this part of Oklahoma no
man need be afraid of bermuda taking his land.
The worst trouble we have here is to keep it.
It gets so cold here it freezes out. I planted my
lawn and barnyard last of May, 1910, and as
dry as it was, nobody had a finer lot of grass
than I had, unless it was bermuda. But the
cold and dry winter killed much of it. If all the
washed off hillsides were in bermuda, we cer-
tainly would have pasture that would be worth

THE PASTURE 145

two to one of what we have got. So plant ber-

muda for pasture and turn out your stock on it,

and save time and labor of sticking up signs,
A A

‘keep off the grass’.

232. Washita County, Western Oklahoma.
‘After a careful examination, I find that about
half of my bermuda grass is dead. It was
planted five years ago; part of the roots ob-
tained from the Experiment Station and part
from seed from the United States Department
of Agriculture. There is no difference in them.
Both died out alike. None of it has been pas-
tured during the past twelve months.’’

233. Kiowa County, Western Oklahoma. ‘‘I
started with a few roots sent me from the Ex-
periment Station five years ago and planted
them in my yard on freshly broken sod, getting
a fair stand and covering the ground in two
years. The second year being a very wet one,
it did reasonably well but, except that season,
it was almost a failure, freezing back very badly
each year. It is almost all frozen out now ex-
cept some few sprigs just showing up. I am
taking care of it; fertilized the ground and re-
plowed it. All of the grass which has been
planted since is in better shape than that in the
yard. I have no bermuda grass that I consider
good, but I have neither tended it well nor given
it a fair piece of ground. Hogs certainly like
bermuda grass roots, as they are fresh and
sappy when the alfalfa is dead.”’

146 SURE FEED CROPS

234, Blaine County, Central Oklahoma. ‘‘ Very
little of our bermuda died either from dry
weather or freezing. Probably not over five
percent. of it is damaged. This is the big va-
riety of bermuda which you sent us from the
Experiment Station several years ago. The
small variety which we got at Kingfisher, and
which has stood for eight or nine years here, is
damaged from sixty to seventy-five percent. but
it is starting nicely and bids fair to reset the
tract.’’

235. Garfield County, Central Oklahoma. ‘‘T
have patiently waited for warm weather but am
compelled now to state that my bermnda is
nearly all dead on the half acre which I planted
three years ago and cared for well, never pas-
turing it closely or late. It is now about one-
third of a stand which will thicken up to a sod
again. That which I planted last year and the
year before is all dead.”

236. Canadian County, Central Oklahoma.
‘My bermuda grass is alive but have been hold-
ing my opinion as long as possible for fear of
accident. There are more dead roots in it than
common, but there are always some. Where
not pastured into the ground, it is fine erazing
now. It is at least twenty days late this year.
On the poorest high places where pastured hard,
it is coming but from the deep roots.”?

237. Canadian County, Central Oklahoma. —
‘‘My bermuda planted last June on well pre-

THE PASTURE 147

pared ground and kept clean made a nice
growth and completely covered the ground. Six
or seven roots only have started growth this
spring. Neighbors’ pieces likewise are all dead,
but it came from the same stock. Alfalfa seeded
last spring makes a pretty fair show and the
old patch is doing well. It looks as though it
can stand more than bermuda.’’

238. Oklahoma County, Central Oklahoma.
‘Genuine, hardy bermuda grass is in good con-
dition on my farm and it was pastured to the
roots last year. It was set out in July, 1908, on
sandy soil. Other kinds of bermuda are dead
or badly hurt. A few warm days may change
their condition. I firmly believe that the genu-
ine, hardy bermuda grass will hold its own
under the most trying of circumstances.’’

239. Pottawatomie County, Central Oklahoma.
‘“TIn 1910 I set bermuda in the hog lot and some
just outside where the cattle and horses ate on
it, tramped on it, and wallowed init. I thought
this would surely die, but instead it is green and
nice at this time. That in the hog lot made
good growth, but it is nearly all dead now,-—
just a few green sprigs are showing. Some little
patches in the pasture, which had been sodded
over for four or five years, are dead but this
does not discourage me. I have set out some
more this spring and intend to plant still more
if nothing prevents it.’’

148 SURE FEED CROPS

240. Lincoln County, Central Oklahoma. ‘‘I
was compelled to pasture my bermuda very
heavily during the drouth last summer and was
afraid that it was dead. It is coming out since
the spring rains, and if we ever get any warm
weather it will be all right. If the day ever
comes when every acre of land in Lincoln
county that will grow alfalfa is seeded to al-
falfa and all the rest of the land is set to ber-

muda, we will have made a move in the right
direction.’’

241. Lincoln County, Central Oklahoma. In
the spring of 1911, F. A. Mitchell wrote: ‘‘We
thought ninety-five percent. of our Lincoln
county bermuda grass dead but find that per-
cent. now living. Every warm day develops
new shoots. We have examined very many
fields and have found none entirely dead, only
in patches. The unprecedented drouth of last
year and the hard sharp freezes of last winter
struck a staggering blow to bermuda long set
or new set upon sandy or any other soil.

‘‘Some tracts we are now pasturing; others
will not be ready until July, while other small
tracts we will plow up and reset. We estimate
that more bermuda will be set in Lincoln county
this year than during the past five years. Farm-
ers have been drawing roots by the wagon
load from tracts not damaged. We have al-
ready set over forty acres this spring and shall
continue in well doing.

THE PASTURE 149

‘What if ninety-five percent. of the bermuda
was dead! We would set the five percent. and
try it again. Oats blight and we sow again.
Kafir blasts and we plant again. At least one-
third of our cotton crop was destroyed last year
by the cotton worm and sharp shooters, yet we
add twenty-five percent. to the acreage of our
cotton this year. Mules die and we raise or

buy more. Wives die and men get married —

again.

‘We say bermuda grass for Lincoln county,
now and forever, one and inseparable. Let it
grow until it shall transform our depleted hill-
sides into pastures of carpeted green, and our
farmers from a mortgage bondage into the full
liberty of independent plentitude.’’

242. Caddo County, Central Oklahoma. ‘‘ Ber-
muda is very fine pasture while it is here. Can’t
be beat. It comes in late and goes out at the
first frost. It is hard to get started and at first
is expensive. As to bermuda hay, I would as
soon have good oat straw. I have five acres,
put out last spring, but it was so dry it did not
get set good and I am afraid it has not lived
through the winter. My neighbor south of me
has thirty acres and I know of four others. But
they are out on the prairie, not protected by
timber, and froze out a year ago. Three of them
reset last spring and it was dry and it didn’t do
so well. However, it may not be dead. We hope
not. I fully believe that if we can ever get
bermuda four years old, being careful not to

~

150 - SURE FEED CROPS

pasture too closely and never burn it off, there
will never be danger of it freezing out.’’

243. Cleveland County, Central Oklahoma.
‘‘T have examined my bermuda grass fields,
which were planted one, two, and three years
ago; some pastured and some not pastured. I!
have found all of the summer and fall growth
dead but the original roots are usually alive
and springing, although it will take the entire
summer to get it back where it was. [ am very
sorry about this, as it has shaken my faith a
little in the hardiness of this splendid pasture
grass. However, the failure was no doubt
eaused by the drouth.’’

244, Cleveland County, Central Oklahoma. ‘‘I
have a piece of bottom land which overflows and
I did not know what to do with it. I planted
bermuda grass year before last. It is simply
fine and hard freezes do not hurt it. But in the
orchard, where some of it started some years
ago, it is all dead because it was plowed in the
fall and the ground was loose. We need not be
afraid that it will ‘take the country,’ but it will
keep our stock fat if we let them have plenty
Ora

245. Logan County, Central Oklahoma.
‘Here is the way I plant bermuda grass roots:
I use the front wheels of a narrow-tired wagon
and the hind wheels of a wide-tired wagon. I -
put on a set of dump boards and load the wagon

THE PASTURE 151

with sods cut about two inches square. I drive
the wagon down the furrows previously made
by using the two hind shovels of a cultivator
set the right distance apart to fit the wagon
tracks. A boy or man seated on each side of
the wagon drops the sods into the tracks made
by the front wheels, and the hind wheels press
them down into the soft earth.”’

246. Oklahoma County, Central Oklahoma.
‘‘There seems to be one good feature about the
dry winter; it has killed about all the slow-
starting bermuda. Now we should set none
but the rank, quick-starting, hardy kind. I had
five varieties of bermuda last year. I now
have just two kinds; both vigorous, early-start-
ing, regardless of soil, location, condition, or
protection.’’

247. Latimer County, Eastern Oklahoma. ‘‘In
the spring of 1910 I secured from a farmer near
McLoud, Oklahoma, ten sacks of bermuda turf.
Had prepared a plot of ground, about two and
one-half acres next to.a public highway, and in
April small pieces of turf were dropped in fur-
rows thirty inches apart and covered with a
garden hoe. The weeds and bushes (it is new
ground, with a few scattering trees left stand-
ing), made better growth than the bermuda last
season and the dry weather combined to retard
it to such an extent that in August, when we
cut the bushes and weeds with hoes, a great
many bare spots of ground could be seen. The

152 SURE FEED CROPS

weather continued dry through the fall and
winter and the following spring and summer
was so dry that up to August of this year very
little bermuda could be seen. After the late
rains set in, a thick growth of a kind of wire
grass covered the ground and I said ‘Goodbye,
bermuda’. In September I noticed some suspi-
cious stems of a greener hue protruding above
the mat of wild grass and a few days after I
made an inspection when, lo and behold, the

bermuda was a solid turf over almost the entire
Belg: :*

248. McIntosh County, Eastern Oklahoma.
‘‘Regarding bermuda grass, I wish to report
that in this section, that which was set out last
year did not get a good start, froze out last
winter, excepting the original spots where first
planted. These spots were slow in coming out
this spring on account of the cold weather and
three weeks ago I thought even the original
spots were entirely frozen out; but the last ten
days of hot weather has started up the grass
wonderfully and it is now spreading in good
shape. I am now putting in twenty acres all in
bermuda for pasture. Besides, I am putting it
on each of my places with the intention of
having a pasture on each place. The country
around Eufaula has less pasture land on ac-
count of sc much timber and what is cleared is
generally devoted to cotton. I started putting ©
in the twenty acres three years ago and had
heard so much about bermuda taking the

THE PASTURE 153

country that I loaded a few pieces in the back
of my buggy, went out to this twenty acres and
stuck a few spots in what I thought was reason-
able distance over the twenty acres, confidently
expecting from what I had heard that by fall I
would have twenty acres of bermuda pasture.
This is the third year and I do not believe that
any one of these spots is a foot in width and I
am now planting it out considerably closer to-
gether than I did three years ago.’’

249. Hughes County, Eastern Oklahoma. ‘‘In
1910, we got bermuda roots from the railroad
banks and planted around the heads of ditches
in field, washed there in 1908. The ground was
foul and there was little chance to cultivate,
but in some places the grass has a good turf and
is doing fine. It is dead in but few places; gen-
eral condition good.’’

250. Cherokee County, Eastern Oklahoma.
‘‘My own experience with bermuda grass for
the last three or four years has brought me to
the conclusion that so far as Eastern Oklahoma
is concerned, bermuda is a nuisance and should
be classed with Johnson grass, now outlawed
by the state. About four years ago, I was in-
duced by a well-meaning friend to set my yard
and lawn with bermuda grass, and the result—
so far as getting a lawn was concerned—was all
that could be desired. We soon had a thick,
heavy set coat of grass all over the yard. But
alas! Through the carelessness of someone, a

154 SURE FEED CROPS

few sprigs or joints of bermuda had found their
way into the feedyard, from which place the
bermuda must have been transferred to the
cultivated fields when the manure from those
lots was hauled out there. Anyway, the ber-
muda is there; about that there is no doubt, I
can assure you. I have about three acres in
strawberries, which is one of the most appre-
ciated spots on the farm, and here the bermuda
has been doing its best to rob the family of one
of its choice assets, and an income of several
hundred dollars per season. Seven different
times did we eradicate (?) the bermuda from
our strawberry field last spring and summer.
And the last cleaning out was so thorough that
not a joint of bermuda grass could be seen any-
where, and happy in the thought that at last
our bitter and relentless foe had been con-
quered, we placed the mulch on our strawberry
patch and serenely awaited the coming of
spring. Last week I noticed the new growth
of an extra early spring. I proceeded to un-
cover my strawberry plants. I found the plants
to have made a feeble start at growth, but I
noticed something else coming to life—a few
scattering green tender sprigs of bermuda here
and there indicated too plainly that the pros-
pect of a bermuda crop is much better than the
prospect of a strawberry crop. And that is the
identical spot over which we toiled during the
long and weary months of last summer and fall.
Under the snug and warm cover of the mulch,

THE PASTURE 155

the fiendish stuff had been making preparation
for a final battle and complete victory to anni-
hilate the last remnant of my once prosperous
berry field. Why the Eastern, and especially
the Northeastern Oklahoma farmer, should
have any desire to raise bermuda grass is more
than I can understand, and in this section of
the state, alfalfa and clover will grow to perfec-
tion almost anywhere, and as these grasses are
far superior in feeding value as well as in build-
ing up depleted soils, it would seem folly to ex-
periment with something of doubtful value.”’

251. General Considerations. W. D. Bentley,
who has observed bermuda grass very closely
in Texas and Oklahoma, says: ‘‘The idea seems
to be general that all a farmer has to do to get a
permanent bermuda grass pasture is to procure
the roots, scatter them on the ground and run a
harrow or cultivator over them and in a short
time the land will be set forever and that it will
soon spread and cover the whole farm.

‘‘Nothing is farther from the facts. The
farmer in Oklahoma who gets and keeps a ber-
muda grass pasture must give it careful, intelli-
gent care. For a permanent tame grass pasture,
over a large section of Oklahoma, bermuda
grass is the only hope and it is well worth the
expense and labor necessary to get it and
keep it.

‘*Drouth, cold and shade kill bermuda grass.
The drouth and cold of the last fall and winter

156 SURE FEED CROPS

almost ruined the bermuda grass in many
places. In some sections of Western Oklahoma,
farmers are reporting all their bermuda grass
dead, but I think they will find in most places
enough of it is still alive to give them another
start. I have visited a large number of ber-
muda grass plats within the last few weeks on
the light sandy lands of Western Oklahoma and
find all of them badly damaged but none of
them entirely killed out. I am more than ever
convinced that the bermuda grass has not been
given a square deal in this section. On every
plat that I examined except two, the bermuda
had been planted near the front door, or in the
chicken or calf lot, or near the farm buildings
where every living animal on the farm could get
to it. The wonder of it is that any of it lived
through the long drouth after such treatment.

‘“The best plat visited was a two-acre patch
that after a good set had been secured was
plowed under with a sulky turning plow to kill
the weeds. The weeds were killed and the ber-
muda benefited.

‘“'hose who buy bermuda roots this year may
expect some dead roots among the live ones;
they are there and can’t be separated. How-
ever, the live roots in each sack will be worth
many dollars to every farmer who takes proper
care of them and gives them a fair chance.’’

252. Specific Questions. Location with refer-
ence to temperature and average rainfall, char-
acter of soil, the purposes for which bermuda

THE PASTURE 157

grass is desired, and numerous other factors
enter into any consideration of the grass prob-
lem on a given farm. A few of such questions
and replies are included here.

253. Afraid of it. ‘‘I wish to know if one can
keep bermuda grass where he wants it or not,
and if one can kill it or not. I have about six
or seven acres in my farm which is very sandy
and I can’t raise any wheat, corn, or oats. I
would like to put it to bermuda if the bermuda
wouldn’t scatter or keep going. I have good
wheat ground all around this patch of sand.’’—
Alfalfa county, Western Oklahoma. The only
danger which will confront you with your ber-
muda grass is that it may freeze out in very
hard winters on your sandy land. You are a
little far north for it to grow vigorously and it
certainly will never make any trouble for you,
except that it will not spread fast enough to suit
you when once you learn what this grass will
do for you.

254, Varieties of Bermuda. ‘‘I am greatly in-
terested in bermuda grass, but have a hard time
getting a good start. Are there two kinds, the
big and little bermuda? If so, which is the
better? My subsoil is a clay. Would you advise
subsoil plowing in such to get more space for
moisture?’’—Lincoln county, Central Okla-
homa. There are two varieties of bermuda
grass of equal resistance to cold; one of them
growing coarse and rather erect; the other fine

158 SURE FEED CROPS

and sticking closely to the soil. For general
farm purposes, the coarse variety is best and
the only way to get it is to observe bermuda
wherever you see it growing and when a satis-
factory patch is found, get a start from it. It is
not worth while to subsoil for bermuda but it
will be well for you to plow the land as deep
as possible during the winter and plant the ber-
muda in April and May in rows about three feet
apart, so that it may be cultivated a few times
if necessary.

255. Bermuda in Sod. ‘‘Can I get a set of
bermuda by setting in furrows three feet each
way in a native pasture while the stock are run-
ning on it, or would it be better to plow out a
little at a time and fence it off?’’—Grady
county, Central Oklahoma. You can get a stand
of bermuda by planting it as you suggest, but
it will take from two to five years to get a sod,
depending upon the amount of native sod which
is left and the closeness with which you pasture.

256. Starting in Pasture. ‘‘Do you think ber-
muda would be a success on the Plains of Lamb
county, Texas Panhandle, with a 3500-foot alti-
tude? There is some growing here in the yard
at the ranch under large cottonwood trees.
Could we start it in the short grass of our pas-
tures? Please give your opinion, as I wish to
read it at our farmers’ meeting.’’ There is a
very good chance for you to succeed with ber- —
muda grass when you once get it established.

THE PASTURE 159

You are far enough south so that the winters
probably will not killit out. It will be a rather
slow job to get it established in short grass
pasture, but it is worth trying. Break out nar-
row strips a rod apart in your pastures, disk it
thoroughly and plant the bermuda roots in
April or May. This work may be done easily by
marking out a furrow and stringing the roots
along in it, putting a small piece of the roots
every foot or two in the row and covering com-
pletely.

257. Sandy Loam Pasture. ‘‘I have ten acres
I want to seed to pasture in the spring. It is
the highest land I have, though it’s valley land
and lies close up to foot of hill; light sandy
loam, a good deal of sand in soil, underlaid with
red clay. What kind of grass would you advise
me to sow? Would it grow alfalfa?’’—Hughes
county, Eastern Oklahoma. The only grass
which may be depended upon to succeed for
pasture is bermuda. This grass is best started
by planting the roots. The land should be
plowed as soon as possible and worked down
well. The roots may be planted at any time
from March 1st to July 1st and should be
dropped in rows and covered much the same as
though you were planting potatoes. Alfalfa
would not be expected to do well on such soil
in your locality, and certainly not for pasture.

208. On Gumbo Land. ‘‘I have underbrushed
and pretty well cleared ten acres of gumbo with

160 SURE FEED CROPS

quite a number of dead trees still remaining.
Intend to clean the brush up well and sow to
pasture without first breaking. Under the
above conditions which of the following grasses
would you sow: Kentucky blue grass, English
blue grass, red top, orchard grass, or timothy?
Which is the easiest to set? Have a couple of
acres of bermuda up on the prairie well set,
but am afraid to try it on heavy land as above.”’
—Tulsa county, Eastern Oklahoma. There is
no grass which will do as well as bermuda on
your gumbo land. English blue grass and or-
chard grass are next in likelihood of giving you
some measure of success. Kentucky blue grass
might do fairly well during the wet seasons and,
unless the ground is rather moist, red top will
not do very well. Bermuda grass is really at its
best on gumbo soils when once established. It
takes hold and covers that sort of land very
quickly.

259. Upland Pasture. ‘‘I have about three or
four acres of heavy timbered upland that I have
cut off all but enough scattering trees to make
it parklike. I wish to sow or set this in some-
thing that will make summer and winter pas-
ture for hogs and cows. Recommend some-
thing.’’—McIntosh county, Eastern Oklahoma.
The best grass for you to plant for permanent
pasture on your upland is bermuda. This
should be started by planting the roots at any
time from March until July. If in the fall, after

THE PASTURE 161

the grass is set, you will sow seed of white
clover and vetch right on the sod, it will help
make winter pasture.

260. Bermuda hay is clean and excellent for
feeding to horses. It contains 9.7 protein and
1.24 percent. fat; timothy hay contains 9.9 per-
cent. protein and 2.5 percent. fat; Kentucky
blue grass hay contains 7.8 percent. protein and
3.9 percent. fat. Comparative feeding trials
have shown bermuda hay to be of about the
same value as timothy hay for horse feed. It is
probable that bermuda hay does not possess
high value as feed for dairy and other cattle.
A few phenomenal yields of bermuda hay are
on record. At the Oklahoma Agricultural Ex-
periment Station in 1905, a yield of 2584 pounds
of cured bermuda hay per acre was obtained
from two and one-half acres within three
months after planting bermuda roots in rows
three feet apart. But the soil was in an excel-
lent state of cultivation and the rainfall during
the three months was 14.13 inches. The fol-
lowing season, a total of 5.85 tons of cured ber-
muda hay per acre was obtained from this same
field in three cuttings. But such yields as this
should not be expected and this same field
quickly diminished in production. Bermuda is
a pasture grass and in the Central Southwest,
eannot be depended upon for regular and con-
tinuous yields of hay.

261. For hog pasture, when well established

162 SURE FEED CROPS

on good land, bermuda grass has no superior.
In the spring of 1911, a swine breeder in Grant
county, Central Oklahoma, reported that the
previous season, he pastured thirteen hogs all
summer on thirty square rods of bermuda grass
and that they did well. That was at the rate of
sixty-nine hogs to the acre, and yet he reported
bermuda grass as ‘‘not satisfactory’’ in his lo-
eality. An extensive feeder of market hogs in
Pottawatomie county, Central.Oklahoma, who
has one hundred acres of alfalfa on bottom
land and forty acres of bermuda grass on sandy
slope land not suited to alfalfa, states that an
acre of his bermuda grass during a season turns
off more gain in weight of hogs than he obtains
from an acre of alfalfa. And further, the stand
of alfalfa is damaged by pasturing with hogs,
while the stand of bermuda is actually im-
proved, the rooting of the hogs preventing it
from getting sodbound. The composition of
bermuda grass is such that hogs receiving no
other feed have a more nearly balanced ration
when pastured on bermuda grass than when
pastured on alfalfa. Each spring, the bermuda
hog pasture should be thoroughly disked and
leveled in March.

262. Bermuda pastures become sodbound
after a few years and often yield but little pas-
ture. They may be rejuvenated by plowing with
a sod plow in March and thoroughly disking. |
Within a few weeks, new and vigorous growth

THE PASTURE 163

will appear and the yields will be much im-
proved.

963. Eradicating bermuda grass is no easy
task among small fruits, but it is easily accom-
plished in cultivated fields. Shallow plowing
during dry periods disposes of much of it. Plow-
ing shallow in the early winter and exposing the
underground stems to freezing is fatal to it in
the average winter. If such land is sown to
oats, to be followed with cowpeas after har-
vest, thus shading the ground throughout the
season, eradication will be practically com-
plete. But bermuda grass should be planted only
where it is wanted permanently for pasture.
It is never regarded as a pest by those who have
livestock to consume it; only those who grow
cotton and have no use for grass fear its spread.

264. Bermuda grass produces seed in Okla-
homa. If the manure from livestock fed ber-
muda hay or pastured on bermuda which has
matured seed heads is put on cultivated fields,
small patches of the grass are almost certain
to start from the seed. Such manure is thus
undesirable for placing on the garden or about
small fruits. But the young bermuda grass may
easily be killed in the cultivated fields and the
actual spreading of bermuda from this source
is really very slight.

164 SURE FEED CROPS

OTHER GRASSES AND CLOVERS

265. Many other grasses are sown and occa-
sionally some of them seem to promise success,
only to fail entirely when the test of the dry
year comes with its great need for feed for live-
stock. A few of these are considered in the
answers to inquiries which follow, but their
being included here should not be taken to
mean that any of them are to be regarded as
sure feed crops.

266, Canada blue grass. ‘‘Please let me know
the value of Canada blue grass as a grass for
Western Oklahoma. JI have some rough land
that doesn’t amount to much as pasture, having
a bunch grass on it, inclined to be sand grass.
What should I put on it for better returns?’’—
Texas county, Western Oklahoma. Canada
blue grass is of value only in the far north, and
it is not likely to do a thing in your locality.
Get on hand a supply of seed of bromus inermis,
and whenever you strike a period of plenty of
rain, go out and scatter some of the seed over
your pasture land. If you keep this up for a
few years, you will be giving bromus inermis
the best possible test and it is probably the only
grass which may possibly improve your native
pastures.

267. Timothy and Red Top. ‘‘What about
timothy, red top, or red clover? What do you -
think of these for hay in the east side of the

THE PASTURE 165

state?’’—LeFlore county, Eastern Oklahoma.
The last few years have not been very good
years for timothy, red top, and red clover even
in Eastern Oklahoma. Ultimately you will
place your dependence in bermuda and alfalfa,
but before that time comes, the eastern counties
will have to go through a period of expensive
experiences with timothy and clover. On the
moister lands, red top will do very well, and
there will be many years in which timothy and
clover will pay. Fine timothy has been grown
in Ottawa county and also some excellent red
top.

268. Japan Clover. ‘‘Do you think Japan
clover would make a good hay crop for this part
of Oklahoma? I would like very much to sow
some kind of hay crop on upland that would
beat alfalfa. I have been reading a good deal
about Japan clover and came to the conclu-
sion that if it would do well in Oklahoma, I .
would like to get some.’’—Custer county,
Western Oklahoma. Japan clover is of ab-
solutely no account in your part of Okla-
homa. In very wet years it grows as far west
as Pottawatomie county, but in years like the
last two or three, western Arkansas is about
the western limit of profitable growth of Japan
clover. It will be a long time before you will
find any hay crop that will beat alfalfa on
Custer county uplands where alfalfa will grow.
The last three years have, of course, been very
hard on the crop, but it will rain again, and

166 SURE FEED CROPS

when it rains even a little bit, your Custer
county hills are just the stuff for alfalfa.

269. Sand Lucerne. ‘‘I wish to ask about
sand lucerne. I have read about it and am trying
to locate some one who raises it. I have been
informed that it thrives and does well on very
sandy soil or nearly all soils. If this forage
plant is as good as I have been informed it is,
it will be of great interest to very many farmers.
Many parts of Oklahoma have a great deal of
sand in the soil which makes it very hard to get
a stand of alfalfa or to get any kind of grass
crop to stay on the ground for pasture and hay
land.’’—Kingfisher county, Central Oklahoma.
Sand lucerne is very similar to alfalfa, but
more spreading in its habit of growth. The
seeds are somewhat smaller than alfalfa seed.
At the Michigan Experiment Station, the aver-
age yield during four years was at the rate of
over five tons of cured hay per acre. They ob-
tained from three to four cuttings per season.
Try it on only a small scale and sow the seed
late in March or early in April at the rate of
about fifteen pounds of seed per acre. The land
should be prepared as for alfalfa seeding.

270. Curly Mesquite. ‘‘I send you sample of
grass and would like to know what it is. It
seems to be very hardy and is spreading over
the prairie and setting on the hardpan spots.
Some call it bermuda and some say it is not.
Where it grows it kills out all the weeds and

THE PASTURE 167

other grass. All kinds of stock seem to like it.
Could not say how tall it gets as the stock keep
it eaten down.’’—Rogers county, Eastern Ok-
lahoma. The sample of grass which you en-
closed is curly or creeping mesquite. It is some-
what similar in appearance and habit of growth
to bermuda. It is an excellent grass and, while
it does not yield as much pasture as bermuda
does, there is no danger of its spreading and
becoming troublesome. With your heavy aver-
age rainfall, it should furnish quite a lot of
pasture through the summer. This is the most
promising pasture grass for the northwestern
fourth of Oklahoma, where bermuda grass does
not make satisfactory growth. The mesquite
occupies the pastures there after the coarser
grasses disappear.

271. Bromus Inermis. ‘‘Is it your impression
that Bromus Inermis and English blue grass, or
either, is likely to be of value for either pasture
or for hay in Grant county, Oklahoma?’’ There
is a bare possibility that bromus inermis may
develop to be of some value as a pasture in
Grant county, but it is a slim chance. English
blue grass in favorable years might make some-
thing of a crop, but in dry years it would fail
absolutely. The difficulty with bromus inermis
aan to be that it gets too hot for it down

ere.

‘‘T have a piece of ground I have been trying
to get set to bermuda but it is so tight the ber-
muda doesn’t seem to do any better than the

168 SURE FEED CROPS

native grass. J want to know what about sow-
ing brome grass. Is it adapted to this locality?
How does it compare with the other grasses as
hay and pasture? When once set, does it ever
have to be replanted?’’— Washita county, Cen-
tral Oklahoma. It is of no value for your local-
ity. There is nothing better than bermuda grass
and you must not be discouraged, because the
last two years have been very poor years for
getting bermuda started.

272. Grasses for Eastern Kansas. ‘‘Cowpeas
and kafircorn have done their part to bring my
stock through two winters. I would like your
advice about sowing grass seed in thin timber.
I have a small creek bottom farm about one-
third of which is now in alfalfa. There are a
few acres of timber along the creek and the trees
are large and very little undergrowth; the wild
rye affords some early pasture. The soil is a
heavy black loam, free from rocks or gravel.
Will Alsike clover and timothy do well on such
land. What grass would you recommend try-
ing? The land is sometimes partly flooded by
backwater, but is ordinarily well drained. I
cleared some very low ground this year and in-
tend to give bermuda a tryout if I can get
hardy roots. Will bermuda stand much
shade?’’—Greenwood county, Kansas. In your
locality you can improve the grasses in your
timber land by sowing at any time in the spring
a mixture of Kentucky blue grass, English blue
grass, orchard grass, and white clover seed.

THE PASTURE 169

Just scatter the seeds about, preferably during
a rain, and trust to nature to do the rest; also
repeat the sowing in September. If you will
keep this up for a few years, not sowing a great
deal of seed at a time, but sowing a little at
several times each spring and fall, you will ulti-
mately have a fine pasture along your creek.
Timothy is not a good pasture grass. It would
do no harm to include a little Alsike clover in
the mixture which you sow. Bermuda will not
do any good in dense shade. If there are some
sunny slopes facing the south in the pasture,
there is the place to plant bermuda.

273. Sweet Clover. ‘‘Some two or three farm-
ers in Grady county have asked me about the
value of a forage plant called ‘melilotus’, and
what properties it contains for feeding pur-
poses. If there have been any experiments
made with reference to this plant, I shall be
very glad to have the result of these experi-
ments. The plant very much resembles alfalfa,
its growth and character being very similar but
it is my understanding that it has to be re-
planted every two years. Any information
that you can give me along the above lines will
be greatly appreciated.’’—Grady county, Cen-
tral Oklahoma. It is sweet clover that the farm-
ers have been talking to you about. There
are two species of it, scientifically designated
as Melilotus alba and Melilotus officinalis. The
former is also called Bokhara clover, White
Melilot, and tree clover. It has white blossoms.

170 SURE FEED CROPS

The other has yellow blossoms and is some-
times called Yellow clover. The variety with
white blossoms is the one usually grown. It
sometimes seems that the chief value of sweet
clover is to start an argument. Unquestion-
ably it furnishes excellent pasture for bees, and
the nodule-forming bacteria which appear on
the roots of sweet clover are probably identical
with those which work on alfalfa to its great
benefit. Sweet clover also possesses the ability
to grow on almost any sort of soil and might be
used to great advantage to build up very sandy
soils and make them fertile and productive.
One progressive farmer has purchased several
quarter-sections of waste sandy land along the
South Canadian river. He said recently that
he has a few acres of sweet clover and that it
furnished excellent pasture for a lot of young
mules which he had on the place. He said that
it was growing vigorously while the alfalfa
nearby had suspended operations during the
dry weather. He intends to sow quite a lot
more of it and said that hay, which he made
of sweet clover, before the plants began bloom-
ing was eaten readily by his stock. If hay is
not made until after the plants bloom, it is
coarse and strong and does not seem to be
relished by animals of any sort. Those who
regard sweet clover as a pasture crop say that
they get the most benefit out of it very early in
the spring before other things begin to grow.
There is a place for extensive sowing of sweet

THE PASTURE. 171

clover on the sandy lands along the Cimarron,
South Canadian, and Red rivers. It will grow
on lands where nothing else will grow profit-
ably and should be used only in such locations.
Only those who are engaged in the stock busi-
ness can expect to use sweet clover to advan-
tage. They will find that the land on which
they grow it will increase in fertility and that
plowing under a good crop wiil be of great
benefit to the soil. The seed may be sown on
sandy lands without previous preparation, at
the rate of ten to fifteen pounds per acre fol-
lowed by disking or harrowing. There is no
danger whatever of its becoming a troublesome
weed, although many people seem to fear it.
The plant is a biennial, producing seed the
second year after it is sown and if properly
managed, enough seed will mature to keep the
land reseeded. Waste places might profitably
be sown to this crop on many farms, and if bees
are kept, the honey will return a profit from
land which otherwise would be unproductive.

274. Johnson Grass. It is a violation of law
to sow the seed of Johnson grass or to permit
it to mature seed in Oklahoma. Nearly all farm-
ers consider this grass a pest, though some
regard it as a valuable grass producing feed in
very unfavorable seasons. This it unquestion-
ably does, but the rapidity with which it spreads
and its persistence in cultivated fields are very
objectionable features. Johnson grass is used

172 SURE FEED CROPS

largely as a hay crop in Texas, where much
good land has been abandoned to the grass. It
is not a satisfactory pasture grass, yielding but
little after a few years of pasturing unless
plowed up and given another start.

The ability of Johnson grass to withstand
conditions of extreme drouth and produce feed
appeals to many, as is shown by the following:

A farmer living in Ellis county, Western Ok-
lahoma, says: ‘‘We people living in Western
Oklahoma must have Johnson grass instead of
bermuda and alfalfa, as they are not successful
in this locality. The pasture problem is con-
fronting us more than anything else, and I am
well satisfied that if a lot of these people had
Johnson grass instead of sand piles along the
fences, they would reduce some of the mort-
gages. A four-acre patch of alfalfa, good stand,
sowed a year ago last spring, has yielded about
one and one-half tons of hay this season. Under
the same conditions, Johnson grass would have
made twenty tons.”’

Another who lives in the extreme western
end of Cimarron county, Oklahoma, on the
Plains, writes: ‘‘I have a few small patches
of Johnson grass, and it is the only living
vegetation in sight. I am like some others who
would lke to see the Johnson grass law re-
pealed. I have observed Johnson grass for six-
teen years here and don’t know that it has ever
hurt anyone, while I do know that it has saved
the life of many a poor cow. I think it the

THE PASTURE 173

best and most reliable feed for this country,
especially where it can be disked and harrowed
each year. I also find that. my best land is
where Johnson grass has grown for years.’’

A Custer county, Western Oklahoma, stock-
man writes: ‘‘I want to sanction the suggestion
that the Johnson grass law be repealed. That
law is a erime against the stock and stock-
raisers of Western Oklahoma. What if it is
hard to kill out? Ten acres would be worth
more than one hundred acres of any other grass
for pasture or hay. It beats sunflowers and
eockleburs and other weeds that are not legis-
lated against. I would like to sow ten acres.’’

Another writing from Caddo county, Central
Oklahoma, says: ‘‘The views of the man who
likes Johnson grass suit me exactly. The John-
son grass law which we have is a mistake. The
farmers of Oklahoma ought to have a right to
grow what they can do best with. I have forty
acres with spots of Johnson grass in it. If it
had not been for the law, I could have made
more money on that forty acres during the past
three years than I have made from all my farm
of 160 acres. The law is a farce and ought to
be repealed.’’

Another writes from Carter county, Central
Oklahoma: ‘‘I have been two years trying to
get a sod of bermuda grass on twenty acres and
- my experience has been that the hardiest of it
all has looked sick during our last dry spell
and if I had to depend on it for pasture for my

174 SURE FEED CROPS

milk cows, I would have been up against a
high wall. The crop that saved the day when
it was dry looks good to me. On land not one
bit better than that where I have my bermuda,
I have twenty acres of Johnson grass. That
twenty acres the first of the spring pastured
twenty-five head. About four weeks ago the
pasture began to get short so we took out six
head, leaving nineteen in there and they are
doing well. The prairie hay has been too short
to cut yet. My little patch of Johnson grass
has been cut once and is now ready again. Now
the way I am fixed is this: T have only sixty
acres and sixty head of stock. My farm has to
produce enough food for my stock through the
winter and I want every foot to produce every
bit it will. It is against the law to sow Johnson
grass but don’t you think it would be a good
thing to try and have that law repealed?”’

But the following from a farmer in Logan
county, Centra. Oklahoma, represents the feel-
ing of many others: ‘‘Now that those friends
of Johnson grass have expressed themselves, I
ask leave to submit a few reasons on the other
side. I, too, speak from experience; an expe-
rience that has been costly, and the end is not
yet. A neighbor of mine sowed some seed of
Johnson grass. He wanted a good, sure pasture
and such a mess as he has after seven or eight
years of effort to add to and cut out, is enough
to make a decent farmer blush for the looks
of that forty. Much of his land lies along a

THE PASTURE 175

large creek and just across the road and down
the creek I have an Indian lease of eighty acres.
The overflows of the creek carry the seeds
across my eighty and in defiance of my strenu-
ous efforts to control the pest, my crops are
damaged every year, and each succeeding year
I have more work to do cultivating crops with
less and less profit for my labor. We have that
field in cotton this year and just last week with
the mercury 100 in the shade, I went over the
field and cut off a big sack full of seed tops,
and I must keep up the cuttings until frost or
have more stools next year. Now I ask in all
fairness: Has a man any moral right to compel
his fellowmen to undergo such labor and sus-
tain such loss?’’

The following inquiry and answer are fairly
typical of conditions where Johnson grass is
well distributed: ‘‘I am thinking of buying 100
acres of good land, two miles from town, one-
fourth mile to good school. The land can be
bought cheap, lies well, good water, but there
is a big lot of Johnson grass, the great terror
of this section, on it. I am thinking of buying
this land for a stock farm. What do you think
of it? Is Johnson grass any good, or do you
know anything of it? Will it make good pas-
ture? In case I should ever want to cultivate
the land, could the Johnson grass be killed out
for good? Has the Johnson grass law ever
been enforced in this state? Would it inter-
fere with the success of the farm? Or would it

176 SURE FEED CROPS

pay better to buy bottom land at a big price
twelve miles from town and sow alfalfa? Any
light you can give will be appreciated. In case
you don’t know how to advise, just tell me
what you would do under similar circum-
stances.’”? — Stephens county, Central Okla-
homa. If you want this for a stock farm, do
not hesitate for a minute about buying it and
going to it. Where the Johnson grass is thick-
est, you may make hay of it and it is ahead of
timothy in feeding value. It also will furnish
pasture for a time, but if heavily pastured, pro-
duces very little growth. You should take up
the work of eradicating the grass systemati-
eally by fencing a portion of the farm, pastur-
ing it heavily through the summer season,
plowing shallow in November and pasturing
with hogs and cattle, then later disking out
some more of the underground stems so the
stock can eat them. If you will follow this
treatment with a crop of oats in the spring and
then after oats harvest, plow the land and go
over the field several times, taking out any
clumps of the grass which may appear, and
sow alfalfa in the fall, you will have practically
cleaned out the Johnson grass. The Johnson
grass law has never been fully enforced in this
state and it is not likely to be. If you do not
wish to grow alfalfa, the oats may be followed
by wheat in the fall and then cowpeas should
be planted on the wheat stubble, and by the fol- |
lowing spring, if you work at the job of taking

THE PASTURE 177

out the few clumps of Johnson grass which
may be left, you will have the land in first class
shape for cultivation. All of the time you are
doing this, you may be making good use of the
rest of the Johnson grass by pasturing it and
making hay off of some of it. When you make
hay, the grass should be cut before the seeds
have formed, as otherwise the manure will
spread the grass all over the place.

ANNUAL PASTURE CROPS

275. Few annual pasture crops are certain to
produce feed in seasons of extreme drouth. But
the timely planting of such of these crops as
are reasonably successful under average con-
ditions may, at little expense, be made to sup-
plement other feed crops. The use of sorghum
(192), cowpeas (170), and peanuts (184) for
pasture has previously been discussed.

276. Wheat and rye, sown in September or
October, sometimes furnish profitable winter
pasture for horses, cattle, and hogs, and often
do not. Soft wheat yields more pasture than
hard varieties. Where stalkfields are to be pas-
tured during the winter, it is profitable to sow
at least a portion of them to wheat or rye, for
pasture alone. When wheat is to be harvested
for grain, pasturing should be discontinued not
later than March 1st, if a full yield is desired.

7s. SURE FEED CROPS

277. For early hog pasture, early sown oats
is generally satisfactory. Three pounds of seed
of Dwarf Essex rape to the acre may be sown
with two to three bushels of oats. This should
be ready to pasture in April and, after being
pastured off, may be followed with sorghum,
cowpeas, or peanuts, planted in rows three and
one-half feet apart. Rape for early summer
pasture should be drilled, about corn-planting
time, in rows wide enough apart to cultivate.
In very dry seasons, neither oats nor rape will
provide much pasture, and sorghum (193)
should be provided for late summer pasture,
after rape has passed its period of profitable
growth.

RAINFALL AND CROPS

By GEORGE L. BISHOP.

West of Meridian 98, in Oklahoma, means
practically the main line of the Rock Island
Railroad north and south, through Kingfisher,
El Reno, Chickasha, Duncan, ete. West of this
line we begin to approach that part of the
country which is coming to be known as the
dry-farming section. The term dry-farming is
of recent origin, and, though it is a misnomer,
the name is being accepted and understood to
mean that method of farming which depends on
the storing and conserving in the soil of a short
or unseasonable rainfall as an insurance against
drouth. Adaptation of crops and _ certain
methods of soil culture perform very important
duties in the system of dry-farming, but avail-
able moisture more than any other one thing
controls the results in crop yield. This avail-
able moisture is determined first by the average
rainfall of any country or locality. So the
extent to which Western Oklahoma, or any part
of Oklahoma, may be interested in or dependent
upon dry-farming crops and cultural methods,
may be ascertained by looking up its average
rainfall for ten years or more. The rainfall for
that section of the state lying along Meridian
98 ranges from fifteen to fifty inches, with an

179

180 SURE FEED CROPS

average for the last thirty years of a little more
than thirty inches. Some ten-year averages in
certain localities run as high as thirty-four
inches, and in other loaclities, along the same
line, as low as twenty-eight inches.

For the four wet years of 1905-6-7-8 just pre-
ceding the last three dry years, the rainfall for
Western Oklahoma was from five to fifteen
inches above normal. The average for those
four years was more than ten inches greater
than the general average for the years which
had gone before and the three which have fol-
lowed immediately after.

For instance at Chickasha the average rain-
fall for those four years was, in whole numbers
thirty-nine inches; while the average for the
years before and the three which have come
since, is only twenty-one inches. The ten-year
average for Chickasha, not including 1911, is
less than thirty inches.

Hobart, some sixty miles west of Chickasha,
has an average rainfall for the four rainy sea-
sons of thirty-eight inches. But for the years
before and for the three which have just passed,
the average is only twenty inches. For all the
years for which we have records, there is found
to be an average annual rainfall for Hobart,
Kiowa county, right on Meridian 99, of twenty-
seven and a half inches. For Mangum, Greer
county, twenty-five miles west of Hobart, where
we have records for twenty years, there is
shown an average rainfall of a little more than

RAINFALL AND CROPS 181

twenty-six inches. Here the average for the
four wet years was thirty-six and a half, show-
ing an increase of ten inches over the average
for the twenty years, including the four wet
ones.

If we begin farther north and go west, we
find the difference and gradual decrease is
maintained in about the same proportion. Ft.
Reno, on Meridian 98, with records for prac-
tically thirty years, shows an average annual
rainfall of about thirty inches, while Erick, in
Beckham county, one hundred miles west, has
an average of twenty-six, and Arapaho, Custer
county, about half way between Hl Reno and
Erick, has an average for eighteen years of
twenty-eight inches. As you go north to the
Kansas line the rainfall seems to be a little more
regular in its habits, but with a little lower
average. For instance the north tier of
counties and the northwest counties have had
a much nearer normal rainfall for the last three
years than the southwest counties. Go on up
into Kansas, and go west beginning with Man-
hattan for fifty years, Hays for forty years, and
Dodge City for forty years, and we find an
average, in whole numbers, of 31, 23, and 20
inches, respectively.

The four successive years of unusual precipi-
tation certainly had many of us ready to accept
the theory that ‘‘the rainfall follows the plow.’’
But the three years which have followed should
leave us more willing than ever to be guided

182 SURE FEED CROPS

by the records in choosing the methods of eul-
ture, and kind of crops with which we are to
build a permanent and profitable agriculture
for Western Oklahoma.

Records for forty years at Ft. Sill, Comanche
county, show that, as a rule, a year of unusual
rainfall is followed by a year of short rainfall,
and sometimes two short ones, and in one period
five years with an average of only twenty-four
inches come in succession. ‘hen as if to prove
that one extreme follows another, there fol-
lowed three years with an average of forty
inches. The next year was the year 1901, which
many of us remember. It was the dryest for
thirty years, with only sixteen inches of rain
for the entire year. Then back to the other ex-
treme, with a rainfall for 1902 of nearly forty-
seven inches. Then a couple of short years
before starting in with fifty inches for 1905, the
first of the four wet years, which we have men-
tioned. Then, perhaps, to settle for all time
this idea of permanent increase in rainfall,
came 1910 with a little more than fourteen
inches. With all these ups and downs, Ft. Sill
shows an average rainfall of thirty inches for
forty years.

The records show that we may expect about
one-third of each year’s rainfall from Septem-
ber to February, inclusive. That is, where the
average rainfall is thirty inches, ten inches as
a rule will fall in the autumn and winter
months. It also shows that seven of the ten

RAINFALL AND CROPS 183

inches usually fall in September, October, and
November, the other three in December, January,
and February. But there are a few sharp varia-
tions from this rule, an example of which is
furnished in the rainfall of 1911, two-thirds
of which came from July to December, inclu-
sive. The records also show that very wet De-
cembers, such as we have had at the close of
1911, do not come often. Away back in the
70’s there were four Decembers which averaged
over three inches. At Ft. Sill for forty years,
and at Ft. Reno for thirty years, there is shown
to be only one four-inch rainfall for December.
The average December rainfall is about one and
a half inches, with many of them practically
nothing. May, as we all know, is the most re-
liable month for rain, but for the forty years
it shows a-range of from nothing, in the year
1870, to 15.65 in 1905, with an average for the
entire time of over five inches. Only four years
out of the forty show less than two inches.

In examining the records for all these years,
it is interesting to note how often a wet month
is followed by a dry month during the growing
season. This fact has a most important bear-
ing on the methods of culture and the kind of
crops necessary to make the greatest average
yields. It indicates the need of stored moisture
at all times, and the value of proper cultivation
to conserve it. But above all, it means that the
erop which may damage seriously in a day or a
week by heat or lack of moisture, must be re-

184 SURE FEED CROPS

placed by one which can not only stand the heat
but can wait several weeks for rain if it has to,
and then go on and make a profitable yield.
Then, too, when we find that of all the years
for which we have records in Western Okla-
homa, half of the Julys show less than a two-
inch rainfall, it means that nine times out of
ten, for those years, the yield of corn will be
greatly reduced.

Upon closer investigation the facts become
all the more startling for the corn crop when
the records show that for fifteen years out
of the forty at Ft. Sill, and twelve years out
of the thirty at Ft. Reno, the average of the
combined rainfall for the months of June and
July does not amount to four inches. This
means that for Western Oklahoma, we may ex-
pect a little more than one year of every three
to bring us a June and July in which corn, on
the uplands at least, cannot hope to make a
profitable yield.

The purpose of this discussion, or rather sum-
ming up, of the rainfall for Western Oklahoma,
is not to explode anybody’s theory nor shake
the faith in any interests invested here or which
may be planning to come here; and above all,
it is not to make any farmer feel that his farm
is worth any less today than it ever was. It is
simply an honest effort to get together a few
dependable facts about what we may expect to ~
be ours in the way of rainfall for the future. ©

And from this we conclude:

RAINFALL AND CROPS 185

First, that no farmer west of Meridian 98
should let any kind of preachment, previous
condition of servitude, or preference as to pre-
cipitation, make him forget where ‘‘he is at’’.

Second, that the average rainfall of his local-
ity should be ascertained and taken seriously;
not because any possible profits of farming in
such locality are determined solely by such rain-
fall, but because the kind of farming, and the
variety of crops through which these profits
may accrue, are most certainly determined by
the average rainfall of that locality.

Third, that the rainfall for Western Okla-
homa, though irregular and once in a great
while distressingly short, is ample for profitable
crop production; provided we, as far as pos-
sible, store that rainfall when it comes, plant
mostly such crops as have proven themselves
able to make yields on the worst years, and
give more attention to the proper preparation
and cultivation of the soil. Briefly stated, it
-would be: conservation of moisture, adaptation
of crops, and scientific soil culture.

INDEX

PAGD PAGD
NPP AY ie hier ste seceeeep2-100 | Bermuda erass .......105-163
after COWDEAS ....22e00- 76 eradicating ......-+cess. 163
amount of seed. 2s. ase. G2 experiences ...... .- 140-156
ANG) DATLEY eye els la ciele ie ele 79 FOr Hos PAStuULre sepsis 161
and crab Srass! Ao. owes. 85 fourteen years’ results... 1385
and Johnson grass .... 82 hardy .....ssecsessees 138
DACTCTIA |... o5 sinus wie wine ss 81 in SOD .......+e0- LA Seo! 158
BeESt. (MALKEE cic! ies ayer Mypeegl TU TMUUES VAS fe eacwaraekee terevetetetons 139
DERE PMT eye eis soe ob atent 92 on gumbo land ....... 159
breaking a crust ...... 83 on sandy loam pasture... 159
cultivation | Un eiaweuss 67 on upland pasture .... 160
gdeep seed hed) ...5 5.8. 56 pasture becomes sodbound 162
Avine OME ho. ee Nk ae 80 produces seed.) 55.5). 5. 163
feeding value”). ../. 8s, 95 specific questions ...156-161
fertility important .... 55 starting from seed .... 139
fertilizer constituents .. 96 starting in pasture ... 158
for bee-keeping ........ 100 varieties OLE TAS reeset 157
for feeding cattle ...... 97 | Bermuda hay, for feeding
for feeding hogs ...... 98 to \Horses | si'eis. 161
POI TOTSOS ee Uk marked 97 Blackhull white kafircorn.. 12
for poultry feeding .... 99 | Bloat of cattle on alfalfa. 95
Pe ty EA Oe aL SR ae 65 Bound ) kanreorm eee 15

bay, grades PEIN ih QL 10 LORIN Intermla' s Sree ohn
ITPAT KAN Sas Melis i Wcia 89

in humid climate ...... 74 | Canada bluegrass ... . 164
in kafircorn stubble...73, 75 Care of young alfalfa. . 64
PA OAUER cue ete ouetalere phase wie. Ces Climatic conditions ..... 1
TH WOLCHATO Meaty stele ie isis 73 Clover. AIA DANA Los crarisnsre 165
AN OPOLS FIOE hoteraier eve, aitie e iais 78 Colorado grass . 124
PEL IPOWH URL Sultit eeu ok o's. 70 Concerning markets for ka-

in the dairy ration .... 98 BTCRER 05 occu) a's Bee 17
CM a We Lt gl A 93 | Cottonseed, a ‘sure feed

BN SV MOME, (S852 Ce slesg lls 76 CEOD (isis bhatt ko ccanerrestee 44
AERTS ES 10S cl's wie! |e eae 88 auoait bev sold). ceee Stans aed
is invulnerable ........ 53 Cottonseed hulls ......... 46
methods of curing .... 66 | Cottonseed meal ........ 46
ON) COM WAR eisieles ec ate 58 fed) sto (HOSS: j.f sks aie eee -. 49
on new. lands yo Wee. = 61 fed to stock cattle ..... 47
On) ‘sandy lands(ii5.)<).. 60, 71 fOr (CALVES... denies © Pena a |
OM! MSOMG tees ekanee ee ae eve 71 for .Gairy COWS): eis c.06 48
on stubble lands ...... 56 for fattening steers ... 48
pasture for hogs ...... 94 LOR’ (MOMSEN chaslhatciens sheets 47
DASTUTING Ne tee cece 93 Cottonseed products ....44-52
reseeding in spring .... 77 | Cowpea seed ............ 108
HOC MCTOD Naknehes ese: ce 68 Cowpeds: (sae ee ee 100-111
Seed. | testing... sk sisi 62, 81 alternate rows ....... - 102
BOTS MOU 2 Rae 54 amount of seed ....... 103
spring seeding ........ (59 as a catch crop ...... 103
WeEDWOPMS oc hu hoe eaters ASM ats: CXPECTIENCE 9 2\0') .evek cane oe
OAL) TOL (STOW? Ws vices (GS feeding value ......... 106

Mf
in the south ........--
on upland soils .......
replace clover .....-.-.
require cultivation
METEC ULB eid ovat che ieie. eel ey ava

INDEX 187

PAGH PAGH
105 SOOM! & 'saiaie)s alee eieiacs Sieh siepary) bee
100 Sibaeste Ao ow Uw ate ale arene 23
101 UE V2 lie hes concn nal alot er she 23
100 SUPLeMley GSE! \4 cc's soa eu 8
101

| 107 Laxative. feeds) | s)sic6ecie ese). 6G

eA TTA is crs alan 108
Cultivating alfaita ajirle wala 82 | Markets for kafircorn .... 17
Cultivation of kafircorn .. 138 for milomaize ohissie 3s ves 38
Curing alfalfa hay ...... 87 os stacked hay ane
Curly mesquite .........- 166 a = aE iy se oles 134
id Me) .¢; Raed MN, oe Say NEST ge 2 y
Potomac ls Milumaies,) ek ans 38-44
Wesert wheats \.). os 36% 44 dwarf Fellow aus sews ene 35
Disking alfalfa land..... an tl Sale ert fat SRN ane
Dodder in alfalfa ....... ; ee ners ee bo
7 i Ld orcs ies STOWINE ........--+20--
Freed He fetta ago 105 harvesting with machin- P
i ty (eich AS AR. aie Aroha Sig, wh
ee EuBEHes ot 41 metates, grain early ... =
La = eu eer Ca er Sexy DIACE! OF se shevaiartevehevarae
Pee ieee gael) wniform, product 021). 36
for Eastern Kansas. eR van value of Oe. 61 ' O68 Hae mee @ 83
PIGQEL VEY heed aisle aiaicd doatsvermie ene
varieties tested ........ a Oats after (alfalfa aioe). e 75
Green manuring .........
i ORT cos lve 1 Eaetnre: THe. oo oe 134-178
Growing kafircorn : 1 Pasture i EEL a itt
Harvesting kafircorn ... 14 COE) b)ein ie ssa mie Wile foe -
Harvesting milomaize .... 38 ne between ...... Ein
Heading kafircorn ....... 16 Fag y a el Pere se
Hilling up peanuts ..... y 415 ae i ain i, med sald aaa oe
BH OSS ae debia tare

ERO SY TWASTUTE 6 lee serie oem 7 for behets tau a ala 117
ANVERTMS yi flere ie ine

Indian corn, failures .,.. 7 in Western Guanes id
eA LIAL rhea 165 planting ........ satatalale ¥
Buse crabs OD eatin e 171 P Mae Te gophers in al-

sev ee se 6 ot we ee Sw

Production must replace
ily yg 1 gh a eee 7-33

OT ASR a 24 BP CHIBCIOR: | 4/5) 4'-.2/ <0 5
meaty, POCO esos 6 3/5: 9 | Rainfall and Crops ....179-185
Biiem (OU (SOL iiy...44 6s» 26 | Rainfall does not increase. 4
Gxperiences |»). .)v- e054 \ Rey MOE oe cr wus oi duels 164
Pe CU EME Ce tel eck Wersa 59
fOr) GaIry - COWS: 66 oss a0) ‘Band Tucerne ......'s<s<es 166
for fattening hogs ..... 22 “Scientific agriculture” .. 5
for fattening steers . 20 EL RE Peg aie 1. -125-133
for growing pigs ...... 21 CAen waltic: ...'lgs ses viata iibebes
ROE OTRO 3S sere Seine ah 19 PO 1) a ale awe eer 130
Por i DOUeYy 53 ete eu 23 CLOMS LOR) | Fsis,i\ etnies os oialevete 128
in Texas Panhandle.... 15 fattening steers ....... 181
made slow progress ... ff for: dairy) cattle: (si. 245): 132
methods of feeding .... 18 POD) NOLS) eich ansaelertie pei tees
positively prohibited ... 11 for idle horses ........ 183
PRE WPTSae | RN ie ite 5 is) ¥ongh Tesh oe eo: 130

188
PAGE
HOS rssien sh SC e aliens hoes bite 126
PU Aral ie ie SiN Me ACU ie 128
BOM ES ereveie\oiaveis stove ee 129
SEG SE Ne eis beste leda/aher susehales 5 Ar
EVO Pas cite ipteierats wile arene 126
POLOMUMG 0 ioe ale Qeiaeeie ets 118-123
POR UA Viviavoleie wists vovcnotensuets 119
FOP; SCED i. wi cuete lays! bp ahetel ote 120
“hard jompthe, dang.) a. seats
hay, feeding value .... 122
needs rich Tan ©). cision 119
new varieties .......:. 43
Ob Sandy SOs) wie eve 128
DUMCOLINE. »\< 6 wisic em sie bent alk 121
ae So. tala he felbeiteticnede 121
UIE LA peitis vs esevsicler eter che teiete 123

Sowing alfalfa severevese OF

INDEX

PAGH
Sweet, clover its se. cece s 169
Sweet sorghum or cane... 118
System of farming ...... 2

Thickening thin alfalfa. .63, 83

Threshing kafircorn ...... 17
Timotiny es cic tebe sehen tete 164
Mirkestan aia V2 sit vere 89

Warm soil for kafircorn .. 12

Water near surface for
Alfa lias racic cone

Weevil damage in cowpea
SCCM aswel bone atacieete 108

Wheat andsryecs)..ceoee: 177

When @ corn crop fails.. 87

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