The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-02
AGRICULTURAL
Johnson Grass.

AGRICULTURAL
 Johnson Grass.
 Johnson grass is known under various
 names. such as Johnson grass, Guinea
 grass etc. It seems to be a natlVe or
 Africa, though 1t is known in southern
 Europe and In various parts of the world.
 It was brought to the United States about 1S80 and 1t Is now well distributed over
 the entire cotton belt of this country, and
 is each year pushing it's way into the
 northern and western states
 It belongs to the sorghum family of
 plants and so Is better for hay than for
 pasture, though where well managed 1t furnishes fine pasture as well as hay.
 It thrives best on our heavy, black, limo soils, and while such soils seem
 to suit l. best, yet it Will grow almost as well on our rich clay soils, as well as
 on many rich sandy soils.
 It grows from three to ten feet high. according to the soil and is set from the
 ground up with thick blades whAon furn- ish the greater part of the feeding value. It is inclined grow rather thin on the land, and In order to avoid this, there
 should be an ample supply of gdsd seed | used so as to secure a good stand for
 where grown thin the hay Is likely to grow too coarse and in this case 1t is difficult to cure.
 Soil and Soil Preparation.
 As before stated, Johnson grass will grow on nearly all rich soils, though
 our rich, black, lime soils and rich, moist, bottom lands suit 1t best. Soils for it should be broken deep and narrowed me, the same as for other grasses and like all other grasses, the richer the soil and
 the better it Is prepared, the greater will be the yield of hay and profits. Where soils are deficient in lime, this should also be provided for.
 Seeding.
 The seed may be sown with a grain drill or broadcasted by hand, and har-
 rowed in. It would be a good plan to SOW Melilotus and Johnson grass to- gether, either for pasture or hay, using about 40 pounds of Johnson grass and | IS pounds of Melilotus seed per acre. The fall is the best season in which to SOW this combination.
 Harvesting.
 Johnson grass seed should not be al- | lowed to become ripe before it is cut for | hay, but it should be cut when in or 1 just passing out of bloom. The hay is
 not difficult to cure and few days of
 clear, hot weather will cure it when 1t may be stacked or stored in hay nows
 General Remarks.
 Much has been said against Johnson l grass, which has caused great deal
 of undue dislike for it, for ill my opinion 1 1t is a very useful grass for many sec
 tions of our country and especially so l for the southern states. The greatest ob- l iection to 1t is that we cannot get rid
 of it when we desire to do so. If this | was strictly true, 1t would be one of the
 strongest arguments In It's favor, for any | plant that will furnish as much fine feed | for stock and is stayer should be | highly recommended and I. for one. am | encouraging a more general cultivation ] for this valuable grass.
 l l have known farmers to pay me one | dollar per day to destroy ten dollars | worth of Johnson grass on an acre of | land in order to grow from four to eight
 dollars worth of cotton on the same land.
 Let the Johnson grass grow and get even | with it by turning It Into mutton, beef, 1 wool, milk and butterfat.
 l At one of the county farmers union
 meetings held in Texas in 1907 an editor
 on one of the great Texas papers said l in his speech that tie state paid out an- | nually about 10 per cent of it's cotton
 money for grain, pork, hay and other
 feed for man and beast, and yet the state ! has been trying to discourage the growing 1 of this grass by Legislation
 | In February, 19O7 l went to a city to
 give a lecture on agriculture. A young
 man came to the meeting and said he
 was in trouble and wanted my advice. He
 stated that he had over 1000 acres l of rich, bottom land oyerrun with John
 son grass and wanted to know how to l get clear of It. 1 told him to turn 1t into l milk and sell the milk 1 also told him l that at that time cream was being hauled
 over 300 miles to his town. This is what | told him: "Go home, take a disk har- | TOW and disk your Johnson grass field a | right angles SOW two bushels of oats per | acre, when the oats are in the dough | state and the grass is in bloom, cut from | two to six tons of hay per acre. feed this | to dairy cows and sell the milk A ton | of this hay should produce HOO pounds of milk, which should test at least 1 per | cent butter fact. As soon as this crop | of hay is off, disk the field again, sow | winter rye, not less than one bushel per acre or two bushels of the Tennessee | winter barley, and if there are spots l where the grass is too thin SOW a few | seed on such spots. This will give you i fine winter pasture for young cows and the next spring you can repeat the oat operation again" This young man afterward told me that he would not | take $500 for the information, and he now | has a herd of 300 dairy cows on his farm | and he Is hauling his Johnson grass to the city and selling 1t at fancy prices in the form of milk and butter fat, | while his neighbors are floundering around | in the mud and water fighting Johnson | grass.
 1 The question is often asked me: 'Is | there any way by which we can rid our l fields of it?' To this questino let me suggest this plan: Where Johnson | grass has taken entire possession of | field that you desire to plant to other | crops go at 1t in the fall, disk as stated | above, SOW to winter barley or winter rye | for pasture for winter. In the spring, l disk again the same way SOW oats, cut l the grass and oats together for hay, and I as soon as this hay can be removed from | the field SOW to COW peas and sorghum, | one bushel of each per acre; this will 1 give another big crop of hay. As soon | as this crop of hay is taken off, disk | again and SOW to winter rye or barley. | pasture this during the winter, take the ! stock off early in the spring, let the rye l or barley get start then turn under l and plant corn, cotton or any other crop l desired on the field, as by this time there | will be but little if any Johnson grass | left on the soil. However, if there should | be few roots left which start growth | in the crop, sow rye or barley again at l the same time of the last blowing of the | corn or cotton. Keep up this rotation for | several years and you can clear your soil of Johnson grass.
 | But why should a farmer want to get | rid of grass which. with good manage | ment. will give great profits any