182 THE AMERICAN FARMER 



on festive and saints days in the north of Europe. It is said to be sold in Sweden to be hung 

 up over beds, where it is supposed to possess some mysterious properties of inducing sleep. 



The culms grow from one to two feet high, with short lanceolate leaves and an open pyra 

 midal panicle from two to five inches long. The spikelets are three-flowered ; the flowers all 

 with two palets. The spikelets are chestnut-colored and rather ornamental. It is very fra 

 grant and flowers in May. It has not much practical value for cultivation on account of its 

 powerful creeping roots, and slight spring foliage. 



Broom Grass, Broom Sedge (Andropogon scoparius). This is a perennial grass, 

 with tough, wiry stems, growing from two to three feet high, with narrow flower-spikes com 

 ing out from the side joints and also at the top. The spikelets are in pairs on each joint of 

 the slender axis; one of the flowers is sterile and fringed with soft spreading hairs, the other 

 perfect and with a small twisted awn. 



It grows mostly in dry, sterile soil, and is considered a great pest if it takes possession of 

 meadows ; but it is also considerably valued as a pasture grass before it shoots up its culm, or 

 stem, after which stock will touch it no more. It is said to be very common at the South, 

 especially in Georgia, Alabama, and other of the Gulf States, where it covers old fields and 

 fence rows, and grows extensively in the dry sandy soil of the pine woods. Though much 

 despised by many as an unsightly, troublesome weed, it is nevertheless valuable, while green 

 and tender, as sustenance for stock, of which it affords, in its season, a considerable share. It 

 blossoms in August. 



Andropogon Furcatus, Andropogon Yirginicus, Andropogon Macronrus 



(sometimes called Indian Grass), (A. nutans,) and other species of this genus, which have sim 

 ilar characters with the preceding, form an important quantity of the native grasses of the 

 great prairie region of the West. They are useful as a resource for stock having an exten 

 sive range over uncultivated fields, but their places should be filled with more valuable grasses, 

 as early as practicable. 



Means, Johnson, or Egyptian Grass (Sorghum halpense). This is a perennial 

 grass, with strong, vigorous roots and rather broad leaves. The flowers and seeds closely 

 resemble those of broom-corn, but the panicle is finer and more spreading. Its stems attain 

 the height of five or six feet, with a very broad spreading panicle. It is much cultivated in 

 the Southern States, where it is valued both for forage and hay. It is difficult to exterminate 

 when once the ground is occupied by it, and this seems to be the only objection to it. It has 

 been found that plowing the field and leaving the roots exposed to the frost will eradicate it. 

 It is quite nutritious, will grow on ordinary land and yield abundantly. The following history 

 of its introduction into the Southern States is given by Mr. Wall, of Mississippi, in his recent 

 official report as Commissioner of Agriculture : 



&quot;A few years before the war, Captain Means, of South Carolina, who commanded a 

 trading vessel to the Mediterranean Sea brought from Egypt a lot of seeds, from which he 

 obtained a spoonful of seeds of an unknown kind. He handed them to a friend with the 

 request that they be sown in his garden. They came up and proved to be the grass named 

 above ; but little attention was paid to it until it nearly took his garden. He had the plants 

 dug up by the roots and thrown into a neighboring gully, where they soon began to grow, 

 stopping the wash and spreading all around. It was now seen for the first time that it was 

 greedily eaten by stock. This was suggestive in a country where all the hay had to be 

 imported, and so the seeds were gathered and sown. Thus the Means grass derived its name.&quot; 



In 1860 Captain Johnson of Marion Station, Alabama, paid a visit to some relatives in 

 South Carolina and heard of this grass, that had in the meantime acquired a great reputation, 

 and on his return, carried home with him a bushel of seeds and sowed them on his plantation. 

 Soon after this he went into the Confederate service and was killed, leaving two little girls. 



