Sugarcane and bamboo are both giant grasses, while the great cereals of the world, grasses too, are wheat, corn, oats, rye, barley, and rice. Wild grasses include bluegrass, esparto, reed, sandbur, Sudan grass, and wild barley, as well as many others.
Many grains and grasses grow well planted together, the growth of both being enhanced and increased.
Alfalfa planted before cotton will put nitrogen in the soil, to the cotton’s benefit, and alfalfa planted with it will discourage root rot.
Cotton growers try to keep the pink bollworm under control by isolating infected fields, sterilizing seeds and cotton, and by using machines that chop up leaves and other trash from the cotton. Shredding stalks in late summer and plowing them under helps control the worm and the boll weevil.
Farmers now protect their crops against the diseases of older cotton plants by growing varieties that are bred to resist such diseases as wilt and blight.
Crabgrass is one of the most troublesome lawn pests. Handpulling is recommended on lawns (before the plants form a mat), and mulch and frequent cultivation in gardens. As with Bermuda grass, dry hot weather will wilt the roots if they are brought to the surface. (See also Grass, Quack.)
This perennial forage legume of Eurasian origin also is called medick, sanfoin, lucifer, snail clover, and great trefoil. The plant was introduced into England by the Romans, but it is not much grown today, possibly because it takes several years to reach fruition. It produces three crops a year, however, and grows again from the same roots once it reaches maturity. Oddly enough, in England the spikelike flowers are violet but in China they are yellow.
Esparsette is a good food for cattle and is equally nourishing for humans. It is valuable for those suffering from weight loss yet reduces weight in those who are too heavy. It is considered a tonic for both the brain and spinal cord. The roots of a variety called black medick make a good tooth powder.
Esparsette is recommended as a border plant for small grains or vegetables, and in a thin stand it aids growth of corn. It also may be grown as a lightly scattered stand with small grains. The seed retains viability for up to three years, and grows well in limestone soils.
Flax is a good companion to both carrots and potatoes, improving both their growth and flavor. Flax planted near potatoes will protect against the Colorado potato beetle. (It is, however, poisonous; see the chapter on Poisonous Plants.)
Leaf extracts of the false flax (Camelina sativa and C. micrcoarpa), frequently found growing in flax fields, have an inhibiting effect on flax itself.
This group of eastern Asiatic, perennial creeping grasses is widely used in the Southwest. Some are important horticulturally as lawn grasses, others as ornamentals. In hot, dry climates Korean grass is strikingly effective planted with such succulents as the porcelainlike aeonium, the texture contrast enhancing both plants. It grows well with Cotyledon undulata and the delicately beautiful rosettes of Graptopetalum paraguayense.
See Molasses Grass in the Pest Control chapter.
This ornamental grass, best grown in the South, produces beautiful flower plumes that, if cut when fully developed, are useful for decorative purposes indoors during the winter. It is increased by root division, and it grows well as a specimen plant in the lawn.
Quack grass indicates a crust formation and/or a hardpan in the soil. Choke it out by sowing millet, soybeans, or cowpeas, making sure that the land first is thoroughly cultivated and the weather hot and dry. Two successive crops of rye also will choke it out.
A concentrated brine of common salt (sodium chloride) will kill it out, too, if used after grass is freshly cut and applied in dry weather several times. Dry weather will wilt the roots of quack grass if they are brought to the surface. Hand-pulling is recommended if there are but a few plants.
Like so many other things, quack grass isn’t all bad. It is a good cattle feed, and because of its persistence it makes a useful covering for gullies and road banks where live soil has been cut open and few other plants will grow. Though hard to get rid of once it is started, it does prepare the soil for better things. Oddly, it is wheat’s nearest relative.
Bermuda Grass (Cynodon dactylon) is an excellent lawn grass for the southern states. Bermuda withstands both heat and drought and will grow reasonably well even on poor soils. It may be started by seeding or sodding.
Never allow Bermuda to get started in the garden or flower beds, for it spreads quickly on cultivated soil, competing with flowers or vegetables for moisture. It may be killed out in the summer by hoeing and exposing the rhizomes to hot sunlight.
Kentucky Bluegrass (Poa) is an excellent grass for the North and East. It needs a quick-germinating and quick-growing grass, such as redtop, planted with it to provide a rapid ground cover that will help crowd out weeds during its early development. After it gets a good start,the bluegrass will crowd out the nurse grass.
St. Augustine (Stenotaphrum secundatum) also thrives in the South, being particularly good under trees or in other shady areas where Bermuda will not do well. It forms a thick mat and smothers weeds.
Zoysia (Gramineae spp.) in cultivated species forms dense turf and is very valuable for planting on sandy soils, especially in the South. It is propagated vegetatively by means of small pieces of turf called plugs. Zoysia will choke out crabgrass and weeds.
With the development of “beefalo” hybrid cattle by D. C. Basolo of Tracy, California, rich pasture grasses suitable for grazing livestock take on even greater importance. The Beefalo, which is three-eighths buffalo, three-eighths Charolais, and one-quarter Hereford, can be produced more economically than other breeds because it gains weight faster and can finish out on grass rather than grain.
Another oldtime breed is the Texas Longhorn, which, though not as tasty as the Beefalo, also will finish out on grass.
Bermuda (Cynodon dactylon), a very persistent and nutritious grass of the southern United States, is useful for both pasture and lawn.
Buffalo grass (Buchloe dactyloides), which grows on the western range where bison used to graze, still serves as food for herds of cattle. It is also useful for binding the soil, preventing erosion.
Grama grass (Bouteloua spp.), occurring mostly in the Great Plains area, is excellent forage for livestock. It is widely used also in conservation to prevent soil erosion.
Johnson grass (Sorghum halepense) grows wild all over the Southwest and is often a great pest in gardens, yet in pastures it is very nutritious for cattle.
Ryegrass (Lolium spp.) is often grown in nut orchards and serves as food for cattle that are allowed to graze and fertilize the land, from which they are removed at harvest time. Orchard grass growing under fruit trees can suppress the root growth of pears and apples.
Teosinte (Zea mexicana), an annual grass often used as fodder for livestock, is considered the nearest relative to maize or Indian corn of all the wild grasses. It grows wild in moist soil from Connecticut west to Kansas and south to Florida and Texas.
A quick-germinating and quick-growing grass such as redtop frequently is used in lawn seed mixtures to provide a rapid ground cover that helps to crowd out weeds during the early development of the more permanent grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass. The bluegrass may take two or three years to reach full development, but once it attains this under favorable conditions, it will crowd out the nurse grass.
A cover crop of mixed clover and oats following sod and before corn is planted will lessen the white grubs that infest corn. Oats and vetch do well planted together.
Oats sometimes can be grown effectively as a trap crop to lure red-winged blackbirds away from other grains. The stand should be grown at some distance from the birds’ roosting places.
Do not let sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale), sometimes called swamp sunflower, grow in pastures. Most cows respect the bitter leaves, but many a pail of milk has been spoiled by a mouthful of helenium among the herbage. If you are wondering why this plant is called sneezeweed, take a whiff of snuff made from the dried and powdered leaves.
Wild larkspur is poisonous to cattle.
Other plants that should never be allowed to grow in pastures are the field and the meadow garlic (Allium vineale resp. canadense). Just a few minutes after a cow has eaten some field garlic her entire body is penetrated, and after half an hour the milk is flavored with it and remains so for several hours. To avoid damage to the milk, it may be necessary to keep the cows off the pasture or let them graze for only a short time after milking, then remove them to another pasture.
Poppy and wild larkspur like to grow with winter wheat but dislike barley. Wheat fields heavily infested with poppy yield a poor harvest of lightweight seeds.
Poppies are grown for both seed and oil but they rob the soil of nutrients, causing it to need rest and reinforcement afterward. This factor may be used to advantage, however, to choke out weeds that cannot be gotten rid of by any other means.
Poppy seeds may lie dormant in the ground for years and then show up again with a grain crop, particularly winter wheat.
Poppies can become too much of a good thing, especially in plantings of barley, which they inhibit.
Rape is an annual plant cultivated for its leaves and used as temporary pasture crop for livestock. Because of its deep taproot, it loosens soil and improves drainage, leaving the land friable and ready to grow a more useful crop. It helps to heal soils injured by overdoses of mineral fertilizer.
The succulent rape grows fast, producing best under cool, moist conditions. It also resists rather severe frosts and is best seeded in the fall in the southern states and in the spring in the northern ones.
Do not grow rape near hedge or field mustard since both will inhibit its growth.
This aquatic grass is not really rice at all, nor is it related to rice. It grows from four to eight feet tall in the shallow lakes of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and central Canada. There it has traditionally been harvested by Indians, who bend the heads of the plant over the edge of boats or canoes, beating the grains loose with two sticks.
Wild rice may be cultivated, growing best in quiet, pure water from one to six feet deep, along the margins of streams, ponds, and lakes or the floodplains of rivers with rich mud bottoms. It likes a slow current and will not grow in stagnant lakes or pools. A fairly shallow farm pond fed by streams can provide a good supply of this vitamin B–rich delicacy.
Do not try to plant the product you find in the grocery store, for only unhulled seed will sprout. Rice for planting must be sacked and kept wet. The seed may be planted by scattering over the surface of the water at the rate of a bushel per acre. The good seed will sink rapidly. If your area is small, use a large handful to a six-by-six-foot space. The best planting time is just before ice forms in late fall.
Rye is an excellent crop to choke out chickweed and other low-growing weeds that survive the winter. Planted twice in succession it even will choke out quack grass. A cover crop following sod will reduce black spot on strawberries and pink root on onions.
Rye will be benefited by cornflowers in the ratio of 100 to 1. A few pansies in the field will aid it, and the wild pansy (viola) will germinate almost 100 percent if grown nearby. Rye has an inhibiting effect on field poppy, retarding both the germination of the seed and its growth.
Rye flour sprinkled over cabbage plants while they are wet with morning dew will dehydrate cabbageworms and moths. Refined diatomaceous earth is useful as an insecticide for stored rye, but it is not injurious to warm-blooded animals.
Several insect-resistant strains of sorghum have been developed: ‘Atlas’ is resistant to the chinch bug, while ‘Milo’ is susceptible; ‘Sudan’ is resistant to the corn leaf aphid, while ‘White Martin’ is susceptible.
The sweet sorghums or sorgos are grown especially for the production of sorghum syrup, which is made by pressing the juice out of the stems. For the gardener who would like to be self-sufficient, here is a source of sweetening for his other foods. To get the maximum amount of sugar in the juice, sorghum should be seeded on soils that are not too fertile. Large vigorous stalks usually are lower in sugar than those grown more slowly and not over a half-inch in diameter.
Root exudates of sorghum apparently are poisonous to sesame and wheat. Stored sorghum grain can be kept free of insects by refined diatomaceous earth used as a desiccant dust.
Sudan grass (Sorghum vulgare sudanese) is a tall annual sorghum whose thin stalks grow quickly and may reach a height of 10 feet. It serves as excellent summer pasturage and grows well with soybeans if sufficient moisture is present.
Johnson grass (S. halepense), a perennial sorghum, grows as a weed in the southern United States. It resembles Sudan grass but spreads by creeping rootstocks in gardens or on land needed for cotton or other row crops to become a pest, but it makes excellent hay for cattle feed.
Soya beans, native to China, are so rich in protein they have been called the “meat without a bone.” They are perhaps the world’s oldest food crop, and they have meant meat, milk, cheese, bread, and oil to the Asiatic peoples for centuries. Like all legumes, they loosen and enrich poor soil and are an excellent crop to grow preceding others that need nitrogen. They grow faster and thicker than weeds and will choke them out.
Soya bean
Soybeans planted near corn protect it against chinch bugs and Japanese beetles. They grow well with black-eyed peas and will choke out weeds because they grow so rapidly.
Grain can be partially replaced as stock feed by sugar beets, which are liked by all animals and are good for increasing the milk flow of cows.
Cheat grass is often a despised weed but has the ability to quickly form a ground cover over denuded soil, preventing erosion. At the same time it replaces plants that are host to beet leafhopper, making it of considerable importance to sugar beet growers.
Timothy, a valuable, cool-season grass perennial, sometimes called herd’s grass and by the English cat’s-tail, has slender stems bearing round spikes of tiny, tightly packed flowers. Farmers in both Canada and the United States often sow timothy in rotation with oats and other grains. It does not last long when cattle or other animals graze on it continually, and is not considered a satisfactory pasture grass unless mixed with hardier types.
Timothy and other small grains are benefited by planting them with legumes such as alfalfa and sweet clover as a protection against white grubs.
The International Wheat and Maize Center of Mexico produced a new grain, triticale, by crossing wheat and rye, gaining the high yield of wheat and the disease- and drought-resistance of rye. This was accomplished by the tedious process of cross-fertilization among different species. By nurturing the resulting embryo and chemically causing its chromosomes to duplicate themselves, the scientists succeeded in producing fertile plants bearing the characteristics of both parents.
Triticale
The name triticale (pronounced trit-i-kay-lee) derives from the scientific names for wheat and rye, triticum and secale. The cross has a higher protein content and protein efficiency ratio than either wheat or corn — comparable to soy concentrate — and it is also higher than wheat in lysine and methionine, two of the life-sustaining amino acids.
A delicious bread made from triticale is now obtainable in many grocery stores throughout the Southwest. The flour’s baking qualities are better than rye’s.
Triticale has shown the ability to produce two or three times as much per acre as either wheat or rye and can be grown anywhere in the world where wheat is found. The grain is being improved constantly as new strains are developed at various experiment stations throughout the country.
Vetch, a relatively slow-growing perennial, is a good companion for oats and rye. Plant fast-growing rye or oats as a “nurse crop” to provide shade and check competitive growth. However, if this is done, the vetch should be planted more thinly than ordinarily or the annual nurse crop may be choked out by the sturdy perennial. Fall-planted vetch is one of our most valuable green manure crops. Being a legume, it enriches the soil with both nitrogen and humus.
There are two stories about the origin of wheat, both extremely interesting. The first is that bread wheat appeared around 8000 B.C. when wild wheat by accidental cross-pollination apparently formed a hybrid with a type of “goat grass,” resulting in much plumper grains. This new plant, called emmer, again crossed with goat grass, forming an even more luxuriant hybrid. Because the husk of this grain was so tight that the whole grain would not scatter to the wind as other grass seeds do, the continued existence of “wheat” was dependent upon man, and thus bread wheat came into being.
The Theosophists, however, believe that mankind at a certain stage in his development was assisted by some high initiates coming from the planet Venus. They believe that these advanced beings not only gave moral and social guidance to man but also brought with them wheat grains to supply a better cereal, bees to produce honey and fertilize flowers, and ants. Rye, they think, was produced by man in imitation of wheat by selective breeding. Oats and barley are thought to be hybrids brought about by crossing with earthly grasses.
In some regions, poppies spring up and become a weed in wheat fields. They should not be allowed to spread, for they check the wheat’s growth. On the other hand, camomile is beneficial when permitted to grow with wheat in a very small ratio (1 to 100), while in larger amounts it is harmful. Wheat will be increased by the presence of corn.
The growth of wheat is adversely affected by cherry, dogwood, pine, and tulip, as well as proximity to the roots of sorghum. Canada thistle and field bindweed are harmful to both wheat and flax.
I have grown a good stand of winter wheat by sowing it in the fall on my Bermuda grass lawn. In our mild climate it grows intermittently all winter, heading about the last of June. After it is harvested, the Bermuda grass takes over again and you would never know the wheat had been there. I don’t know whether this would work with other lawn grasses.
If you do make a sowing of winter wheat, avoid the Hessian fly by planting it late, timed according to when this fly appears in your area.