298 EEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



overlying muck, formed from the decayed herbage which has been grown 

 upon them for past ages. They would not produce, drained, near so well 

 as now, subject as they are to the overflow of fresh water, as I have 

 ascertained from some experiments made on parts of a meadow for sev-^ 

 eral years past, and have therefore let it go back to sedge again. If 

 the soil were sufficiently deep and rich, then it would be better, proba- 

 bly in most cases, to dike, drain, and seed them with red-top, or some 

 other of the cultivated grasses. 



In conclusion, to encourage others in making experiments with coarse 

 herbage for fodder, I would refer to the furze, gorse, or whin, TJUx Euro- 

 pceus, (as it is known by all these different names,) which is frequently 

 made use of for this purpose in Europe. When full grown, it is so high 

 and thick, and armed with so many thorus, it makes an impenetrable 

 hedge, as I have frequently seen it in England. Even the poet warns us 

 against coming in contact with it then, for he says — 



Approach it not, 

 For every blossom has a troop of swords 

 Drawn to defend it. 



This furze, before hardening its stalks, is cut and passed through 

 rollers, like sugar-cane, which bruise or crush it so fine that it can then 

 be mixed with other substances and profitably fed to domestic animals. 

 It is said to be particularly beneficial for increasing the flow of milk in 

 cows, and it also adds to the flavor of the butter made from it. 



But to return to the waste products of our own country. Why may 

 we not, when necessity or economy demands, resort to the coarse flag 

 growing in swamps, and the rough stiff rush of otherwise barren sandy 

 lands, and utilize these ? The broom-sedge, also, covering thousands 

 upon thousands of acres of old-field at the South ? 



I well recollect, years ago, that the cotton-seed left after ginning the 

 snowy staple was considered a nuisance on the plantation, and it was a 

 great trouble with the growers to learn how they could be most easily rid 

 of it. At length they found out that it made a highly valuable manure ; 

 then, decorticated and ground, a still more valuable meal for stock-feed- 

 ing. Now, mix this with broom-sedge, which makes good hay if cut 

 before the seed ripens, and from these two, which southern planters 

 formerly were so anxious to get clear of as nuisances, and they probably 

 have one of the best comi>osite forages that our country can produce. 



The moose, the elk, and the deer thrive, and even get fat, on lichen, 

 moss, shrubs, and the bark and smaller branches of trees. Perhaps the 

 time may come when even these may be profitably utilized as forage for 

 domestic animals, as browse has already long been by the settlers of 

 forest lands. 



