Italian Rye Grass.

What kind of grass is enclosed?  Also the best method to eradicate it?

The grass is the Italian rye grass, or as it is sometimes called, the Italian variety of the perennial rye grass.  It is proving a very satisfactory grass in California for moderate drought resistance and for winter growing, and a great deal of it is being sown for these purposes.  You can readily kill it out by cultivation, but most people are more occupied with its propagation than with its destruction.

Fall Feed.

Can I irrigate and plant a forage crop n July to feed dairy cows this fall and winter?  Would you recommend cow peas or some kind of sugar corn?  If cow peas, how many pounds to the acre?

If you wet down the land thoroughly and then plow and harrow and plant either cow peas or Indian corn, you ought to get a good green crop before frost.  Drill in or drop the seed in rows about three feet apart and keep cultivating and irrigating as long as you can get through without injuring the crop too much.  Use about 40 pounds of cow peas to the acre.

Hurry-up Pasture.

What can I plant this fall which would produce pasturage for a small amount of stock this winter, and until I can get the land under irrigation and seeded to alfalfa?

For quick fall and winter growth nothing is better probably than oats and vetches sown together as soon as you get rain enough to plow, but it would be a question whether it is worth while to work for that, because you ought to get your land ready for February sowing of alfalfa and that will keep the land busy after the rain gets it into working condition.

Johnson Grass.

I am informed that Johnson grass makes fine hay.  I have not sown the seed yet, but would like to know if the hay is good and if it will grow on dry land.  I have the seed on hand, but do not want to sow it if it is not good.

Johnson grass is poor, coarse stuff.  The plant is most valuable for grazing when young.  Johnson grass will not grow on really dry land, but it will take the best moist land it can find and hold on to it.  It is sensitive to frost and is not a winter grower except in the absence of frost.

Improving Heavy Land for Alfalfa.

My land is very heavy, red loam, and crusts over very hard in dry seasons.  I would like to know if it would be best to use barnyard compost over the surface as a mulch, or would it be best to use plain straw for that purpose?

A very heavy soil can be brought into better surface condition for alfalfa by plowing in stable manure as soon as possible after the fall rains, in order that the manure may have opportunity to become disintegrated and mixed with the soil by the time for alfalfa sowing, which is from February to April — whenever the heavy frosts of the locality are over.  For a small piece, you might get a better stand by using a light mulch of disintegrated coarse manure or even straw, scattering it after the sowing, but for a large acreage this would involve too much labor.  It is not desirable to work in much manure or other coarse stuff at the time of sowing the seed, but you can make a light surface application after the plant has made a start.