Prev | Current Page 196 | Next

Wickson, Edward J. (Edward James), 1848-1923

"One Thousand Questions in California Agriculture Answered"



Salt Grass and Alfalfa.

I have some land in Sutter county and it has some of this salt grass in
spots. I am about to take a twenty-acre piece and put in alfalfa, but
some old-timers tell me that the salt grass on it is bad stuff to
handle.
Your trouble will probably be not so much the salt grass, but the alkali
in the soil which the salt grass can tolerate and which other plants
cannot stand. You cannot then substitute alfalfa for salt grass without
getting the alkali out of the soil, and you cannot do this without
having sufficient drainage so that the rainfall may wash the alkali out
from the soil and carry it away in the drainage water. You probably
cannot get a satisfactory growth of alfalfa on the spots where the salt
grass has established itself, although the land round about may be very
satisfactory to alfalfa.

Giant Spurry.

I would like information about spurry. How much frost will it stand?
What is time for sowing? Its value as crop to plow under?
From a California point of view, spurry is a winter-growing weed which
has been approved by orchardists in Sonoma county because it yields a
considerable amount of vegetation for turning under with the spring
plowing of the orchard. For this purpose it should be sown at the
beginning of the rainy season. Its value as a crop to turn under depends
upon the amount of growth you can get.


Pages:
184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208