23 



is sweet, tender, and nutritious. Horses and mules prefer it to any 

 other. It is easy to secure a good stand of the grass, and when once 

 established, a meadow is easily maintained as long as the planter may 

 desire. The serious objections to its cultiv^ation are the great difficulty 

 of destroying it when the land is wanted for other purposes and the 

 ease with which it spreads to Gelds where it is not wanted. In many 

 localities it is the worst weed with which the cotton planter has to con- 

 tend. It is more persistent on rich, heavy, and somewhat moist soils?, 

 and on such soils it is very seldom that it is ever completely eradicated. 

 On dry and sandy soils it can be killed in one season by frequent and 

 repeated plowings, but on heavy soils the fleshy roots will retain their 

 vitality for months, even though frequently disturbed. Practically, it 

 is never completely destroyed when once established on a favorable 

 soil, and the farmer wlio plants it should do so only after careful consid- 

 eration and with the expectation that it will remain on the land forever. 

 - When cultivated for hay, the roots form such a dense mat in three or 

 four years that the yield is much lessened. The ground should then be 

 plowed and thoroughly harrowed during the winter or early spring, 

 after which the grass will make a growth as vigorous as ever. The 

 yield of hay is largely increased by sowing sweet clover with it, as the 

 latter makes its first growth so early in the spring as to aflord an 

 additional cutting, while its deep biennial roots serve to keep the soil 

 in a much better chemical and mechanical condition. Johnson grass 

 does not bear grazing well, and when pastured it will soon almost 

 wholly disappear, though it will still make sufficient growth to keep 

 the roots alive and ready to start vigorously when the land is plowed 

 again. When Johnson grass meadows begin to fail, many planters 

 pasture them a year or two, and then plant in corn or cotton. Two or 

 three cultivated crops cau be grown on such land with very little 

 trouble from the grass, but after a few crops have been made it will 

 usually have regained such a hold that the ground needs only to be 

 smoothed again to make it a profitable meadow. This grass seems 

 specially adapted to the black prairie region and is now more or less 

 abundant in all of that section. In other parts of the country it is 

 more abundant on heavy alluvial soils than elsewhere, and is quite rare 

 along the coast. 



RED CLOVER. 



Eed clover grows well on rich lime soils which are in good condition, 

 but needs to be managed somewhat differently from the method fol- 

 lowed in the Northern States. Here, it should be sown in the fall, 

 as soon as possible after the first of September. When sown at that 

 time on well-prepared and finely pulverized soil, the land being rolled 

 to compact the surface soil and prevent it from drying too deeply, 

 the seed seldom fails to germinate and to make sufficient growth to 

 become well established before cold weather. The crab-grass and 

 weeds which come up with it are killed by the first heavy frost, and 



