The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-20
Agricultural Department
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CONDUCTED BY FULTON S. WHITE.

it contains a higher food value They base their claims upon the fact that stock eat the wheat more readily than they do the rye. While it Is true that stock will eat the wheat rule before they do the rye yet this does not prove that 1t is best for them in the end or that the wheat contains higher food value. My experience is that & greater amount of grazing may be had from rye than from wheat Besides this, there is the value of the rye in improving the soil, and rye will thrive on soils where wheat would not grow at all. However, there are sections where some varieties of winter wheat will furnish fine pastures, but for the southern states generally and for all soils, I prefer winter rye above all other grains for both pasture and for improving. the soil.
 Winter Barley.
 Oats are more uncertain than either rye or wheat, yet often prove valuable on good soils for winter and spring grazing 1t requires better soil for oats to suc- , ceed than is required for any of our other grains, so that 1t is almost use less waste of time any money to sow oats for grain or for grazizng on this or poor soils. Oats and sorghum sown together in the early spring furnish fine pasture for hogs, but this combination should be sown on good soil for paying results
 The department of agriculture at Wa shington, D. C., for several years has been pushing the merits of new barley called the Tennessee winter barley. This barley has proved a great success over a wide range of country where 1t is being grown for both grain and pasture. It is taking the place of oats in many sections and is often regarded as being far more valuable, one acre being regarded as worth more Af aatG I h1X a nh a this barley being grown from Texas to-Pennsylvania and have failed to hear of one unfacorable report from it. Even as far north and west as Manhattan, Kansas, it has proved very success ful.
 Our readers who wish to grow this fine barley should be careful of the sources where they get the seed. for the spring barley of the north would prove worthless in the south.
 Other Methods.
 Mention has been made here of the grains used as catch crops sown in fields of other crops, yet there is a far better plan for securing winter pas lures from these grains.
 Where land can be had that is not occupied with other crops break deep, harrow fine and SOW one bushel of win ter rye or two bushels of the Tennes- see winter DaTley per acIe. iHeSe Hldy be sown broadcast, cultivated or har rowed in or may be sown with a drill. With these grains. may be sown twenty pounds of winter vetch and ten pounds of clover seed per acre. The vetch and clover seed may be sown on top of the grains and narrowed in. Where the soil is of a sandy nature, crimson clover will be best, but if the soil is of a close or heavy character burr clover will be best There is one thing about this combination, where the vetch and clover Is used we cannot pasture so early in the season, but will get more pasture in the spring. The vetch and clover should become well estab lished that is, well rooted, before stock are turned on. This combination makes a most excellent crop of hay as well as pasture but the same field will not give paying crops of both pasture and hay.
 As we have so many good plants that will give fine pasture for all, win ter and spring and as 1t is such an easy matter to grow the winter grains and plants I hope that none of our readers will allow heir stock to go into and through winter without an abundance of fine pasture. It Is the poorest kind of farm economy to al- low stock to lose flesh in the winter.
 Often young stock become fat on the summer grasses and are then allowed to go into winter on short feed and no pasture and the result is that they come out of winter so poor that it takes a good part of the next summer to get tn em back to where they were the summer before. We should not keep more stock than we can feed