CYI^ODOX. 159 



pest in the crops, whicli fact was so earnestly im- 

 pressed upon me by every experienced planter with 

 whom the subject was discussed, that great caution 

 was naturally induced in the spreading of it myself, 

 or being the means of persuading others to do so. 

 After a season or two, however, of experience in the 

 extraordinary yield of hay, and the number of ani- 

 mals subsisted per acre, and possessed of a more 

 thorough knowledge of the washed and worn condi- 

 tion of the greater part of the hill plantations through 

 the interior of Adams county, Mississippi, where I 

 then resided, I strongly urged the planting of these 

 fields with this g/ass. The owner of a hill plantation 

 now under thorough hedge, and with a close sod of 

 Bermuda grass over his fields, can easily make a 

 living by grazing stock of any kind, independent of 

 fi'ee labor. And if the owner and occupant of a river 

 place in like condition, he has a sure means of even 

 w^ealth in the hay such a place will yield." 



Mr. W, Phillips, Memphis, Tenn,, writing to 

 Country Gentleman in 1872, says : 



'^ If Bermuda grass be not (for summer) the best 

 grass ever grown — latitude 34" and below— -I ask to 

 see. I saj^, take land equal in fertility or poverty, 

 and xsew York, can produce no grass that wall feed 

 as many cattle, or horses, or mules, or sheep as Ber- 

 muda grass wdll in Louisiana, Missisippi, Alabama, 

 Georgia, or Florida. This grass is propagated by 

 planting very small pieces of sod or scraps of roots, 

 in squares of, say four feet. The weeds, etc., must 

 be kept down for one season, after which it will take 

 care of itself." 



