San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-01-21
Grass and Grain for Dry Regions

Grass and Grain for Dry Regions
From the Prairie Farmer.
Prof. Sewell, who has had charge OF
the government grass experiment
station for the last three years, re-
Gently gave some valuable ipforma-
ton derived from these years of ex-
perimental work. He said:
"The land used was n dry piece OF
upland not irrigated, and an average
sample of the land composing the
plains of Western Kansas. They OBJ
tanned over 200 varieties of grains and
grass seed from all parts of the world
India. Madagascar, Asia Minor. diff
ferent parts of Africa and from the
countries OF Europe. but chiefly from
dry countries. These seeds were
planted ~ plats upon the farm in
1889, and most of them proved fail.
ures. A few promised success, how
ever, and they were tried again last
year in much larger plants, from five
to twenty acres each. The season was
unpropitious.
I'm spite of this there were marked
successes. Alfalfa wss not one OF
them. 1t grew to about Is inches in
height but before it bloOmed the hot
winds of June struck it, and it wilted
down so fat that you would have to
get on your knees to see what il was.
A grass imported from France, called
sanfoine, grew luxuriantly, however,
kept green right through the hot
wiLds and all the fall, and made fine
hay and pasture. This discovery OF
good tame grass to take the place OF
the sparse, short buffalo grass means
great deal for Western Kansas.
1.-The golden discovery, however,
was the yield of the Jerusalem corn,
the seed of which was brought from
Asia Minor. While Indian com ut
terly failed, this Jerusalem corn,
planted ION the sod, that Is the sod
simply turned over with pillow about
inches deep, produced, twenty-five
bushels 10 the acre. Some ridiculous
stories had been spread about this
grain, one of which was that it would
grow only in extremely dry weather
and would perish if any considerable
amount of rain should fall. The exact
con trary was true. 1t will produce
more abundantly in proportion to the
rainfall, hut will produce paying
crop even in those seasons when
every thing else fails The grain is so
palatable TO stock that they have
gone through rye or Indian corn TO
eat it. and they do we'll Oh it. Either
as hominy or ground into meal, it
makes a delicious food for man.
"Ol ordinary rye he raised sixteen
bushels to the acre, and OF Poland
wheat. All entirely new species 20
this country, he raised fourteen bush
els to the acre The rainfall averaged
about 90 inches, hut only little OF it
gets into the ground and Is saved
Mulching with straw has been pro
posed as remedy and success IN
conserving the moisture, but too diff.
ficult and expensive tn be profitable.
Another plan is to pillow the first sea-
son only inches deep, then gradual
ly deepen the blowing to full foot.
The rain soaks into the plowed land,
but it is brought to the surface by
capillary attraction, and evaporated
by the sun. Now, If you take a
hard clod of earth. ram it into a tube
and put one end into the water, the
water will rapidly rise through it,
drawn up by capillary attraction. If
you fill the tube with dust it will not
rise either so far or so rapidly. So,
with this idea in view. q harrow was
made of four oak planks, each ten
feet long and eleven inches wide.
Through each of these 300 forty. pen
ny spikes were driven. The plsnks
were strapped together. forming a
harrow with 1900 short, fine teeth.
Dragging this over the ground re-
duced the surface to dust. and the
moisture was saved to noticeable ex-