The Exhibition Grass Plots. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2762, 20 February 1907, Page 21

The Exhibition Grass Plots. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — With your permission I would like It

tell your farmer readers something about teoeinte, a grass which I saw in the pots at the Christchurch Exhibition. From bulletins from the American expeiimental stations I take the following- — "Teo&mte (Euchloena Juxurians). a rank-growing annual grass, Bft to 10ft high. It resembles Indian corn in appearance, and botanically is closely related to it. The tv/o readily cross with each rther, forming fertile hybrids. It is a native of the warmer parts, of Mexico and Central America, and has been cultivated in various parts of the south and west, but rarely produces seed north of Southern Florida and Louisiana. "Under favourable condition it is one of tho heaviest forage plants ever grown in this country. At the Georgia station it yielded at the rate of 38.0001b of green forage per acre ; at the Mississippi Station 44,000 ib; and at the Louisiana Station over 50 tons of green forage In New Jersey it did not yield as veil as corn. At the Michigan Station it grew but 4ft or oft high. It gave heavy yields of good 'odder at the Arizona Station, but required too much wat^r to be desirable for that State. It is most successfully grown on rich &0113 where the seasons are long and there is an abundance of hot, moist weather Elsewhere :t: t possesses no advantage over 'orn The plant tillers abundantly sending up from 20 to 50 staJ^s from a single root. If harvested when lit or sft high, two or three cuttings may be obtained in a single season. A better quality of foiaga and nearly as great a yield can be obtained by allowing the crop to grow and cutting but ouce. about the middle or last of September, before frob*i3 come. The plant contains from Bto 10 per cent, of sugar. The leaves are long and abundant, and the stalks tender. So that there is no waste to the crop whatever, llie forage 'is of the best quality, and the whole plant is greedily eaten by all stock. It makes an excellent crop for the silo or for soiling, and is especially valuable for feeding ;reeu in the summer, when other forage crops are dried up. At the Oklahoma Station teasinte •lost on« third, of its feeding value by exposure in the field over winter. This loss can be largely tfr'eventedL by stacking, » that only the.- butts of the stalks are exposed. The crop should be planted .irr May or. June on good com soil in rows BJft to 4lt apart, »h<J thinned out to on© plant every foot. On© pound of good seed will be sufficient to sow an acre.' As note 3 -above, this crop is of especial value only in the southern Stater, *nd in northern localities it is no* equal So corn as a forage. — I am, etc D. M.