492 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



quently is propagated only by the roots and stalks, every 

 joint of which, however, will send up a shoot, and as it 

 grows extends itself with astonishing rapidity both above 

 and below the surface. If set out upon a piece of 

 ground in hills, two feet apart each way, it will spread 

 over the whole ground in one season. Or it may be set 

 in an easier and more expeditious manner, by taking up 

 the sods and chopping them into small pieces, and sowing 

 them over the ground and covering them with a plow or 

 harrow. The tenacity of life in it is so great, that some 

 people object to admit it upon their land, for fear that 

 they never could get rid of it again. In fact, it would 

 seem that they would prefer to see their land taking its 

 rapid course down the millions of gullies through which 

 some of the finest soil in the world is sweeping its way 

 rapidly towards the Gulf of Mexico, rather than risk the 

 trouble of getting this grass into their cultivated fields. 

 I grant that this grass is a troublesome customer 

 among corn and cotton; but a crop or two of peas will 

 exterminate it, as it cannot live in a dense shade, and that 

 is what adds to its value. It grows the best in the hottest 

 sun, no matter whether on wet or dry soil, hill or dale; 

 keep it free of shade, and it will afford more pasturage 

 or hay than any other cultivated grass in a southern 

 clime. In addition to its invaluable quality for food for 

 stock, whether green or dry, it has in Mississippi another 

 and still greater value. For be it known, this is the land 

 of gullies. That the whole of the hill counties have not 

 already floated away, is only because the land has been 

 held together by cane and other roots, which all decay as 

 the land becomes cultivated; and even now before the 

 stumps of the original forest have disappeared from the 

 ground, thousands and tens of thousands of acres have 

 become so gullied that their cultivation is abandoned, and 

 in many cases large tracts are turned out to the common 

 as past all profitable use, and considered by the owners as 

 almost valueless ; while the annual accumulation of these 

 waste acres under the present system of cultivation is 



