72 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OP AGRICULTURE. 



recommended for cultivation in the Soutli. It is described in the 

 "Agricultural Grasses of the United States," at page 24. 

 Another, writing from California, says: 



I find that there is an intense desire among farmers here to obtain a grass capa- 

 ble of resisting the intense heats of our summers, and also, if possible, one that 

 should gi'ow on poor soil. Tliere is no grass known here that will thrive through the 

 dry summers and autumns, affording grazing for cattle during that period. If such 

 could be had it would simply revolutionize California agriculturally, as many dis- 

 tricts are fast becoming worthless for want of some such resource. This arises from 

 the system of continuous wheat cropping, to which the land has been subjected for 

 the last thirty years without relief from rotation of crops, so indispensable to proper 

 farming. 



A correspondent, of Lampasas County, Texas, writes: 



The Texas blue-grass, wliich you recommended, I have, found in my yard. I ob- 

 served it closely last winter, not knowing what kind it was until it bloomed. Now 

 it has spread, by means of undergi'ound stolons, until I have quite a quantity of it. 

 I also found it gi'owing luxuriantly in the Colorado bottoms, about 20 miles from 

 here. It spreads very rapidly, almost equal to Bermuda or ciu-ly mesquite. Tliis, I 

 tliink, is just the grass I have been looking for. We want gi'asses that will take care 

 of themselves, and I think Bermuda for summer and Texas blue-grass for winter 

 will answer every purpose. Of native grasses we have two kinds that excel all 

 others. One is Buchloe dactyloides, known as curly mesquite, runnmg mesquite, fuie 

 mesquite, and buffalo-grass. It is a good summer gi-ass and fair for winter, as it is 

 only partially killed by frost. The other grass is the Stijxt sefigera. knoMTi as bunch 

 mesquite, winter mesquite, and big-bearded mesquite. It is, i^re-eminently, the win- 

 ter grass of a large portion of Texas, but of no value for summer. It is biennial, but 

 usually thought to be perennial. This grass is found with the live-oak. For culti- 

 vated land Johnson grass, alfalfa, and Texas millet succeed well here. The Texas 

 millet {Panicum Texanum) is undoubtedly the finest forage grass in existence. 

 Horses, cattle, and sheep prefer it to any other kind of hay. It is a siu-e crop, and 

 produces 2 or 3 tons per acre. 



From Camden, Del., we have the following: 



Inclosed please find a sample of what is here called an an- jjlant. We have always 

 been finding small patches of a few square yards in our clover fields, but that 

 amounted to nothing, but in a lucerne patch it is very destructive. My own hay 

 this year was absolutely unfit for bedding for stock. As the man who cut it re- 

 marked, you could stand at one end of the lot and move the gi'ass at the other, so 

 completely was it matted. I suppose it must have come in seed prociu-ed in Cali- 

 fornia. How is the plant disseminated ? What is it ? Is there any prevention or 

 remedy ? 



The plant spoken of above is a species of dodder (botanically, Cus- 

 cuta). It is a parasite, which first germinates in the ground and 

 sends up a slender stalk, which attaches itself at once to green plants 

 in its neighborhood, and thereafter draws its suj^jDort from them by 

 means of small suckers, which adhere closely to the surface. There 

 are many species of dodder, some of which are parasitic upon only 

 one particular kind of plant, as the flax dodder, the clover dodder, 

 &c. In California there has been much trouble in fields of alfalfa 

 from the presence of a kind of dodder, which, it is stated, was intro- 

 duced with alfalfa seed from Chili, and this is probably the kind 

 above complained of. The only prevention of the pest is to make 

 sure of sowing only pure seed. The cure, when it gets into a field, 

 will consist in cutting the crop before the dodder matures any seed, 

 and relocating the process as long as the dodder makes its appearance. 



From Chicago, 111., comes the following inquiry: 



I have heard of a strong-growing beach-grass that they have used w^itli success in 

 staying the shifting sand-dunes in the north part of Germany and Holland. We 

 have some similar land at the south end of Lake Michigan on which we would like 

 to experiment, if we knew the kind of seed and where to get it; something with 

 strong roots, tliat would grow in pure sand, surA-iving strong winds and winter 

 storms, would be a blessing to a large section of this country. 



