If your land yields good crops of wheat or barley or oats, you have little to expect from speltz or emmer. This is a grain generally considered inferior to those just mentioned and advocated for conditions under which the better known grains do not do well. It is hardy against drought and frost, particularly the latter, and is, therefore, chiefly grown in the extreme north of Europe. It may be sown in the fall or in the spring in places where rains are late and carry the plant to maturity.
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.