GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 185 



These girls were sent to school at Tuscaloosa, but having no guardian and no means, the Pres 

 ident of the college had a gentlemen appointed guardian who went to Marion Station to see if 

 his wards had anything. In the meantime the plantation was left alone, no one caring for it, 

 and it was unrented. He found it a large place and almost covered with the &quot; Means grass&quot; 

 the winds and stock having set it everywhere. Being a shrewd man, he saw its capability and 

 at once advertised it as a stock farm, and soon rented it to Messrs. R. C. Gardner and J. C. 

 Copeland, of Nashville, Tennessee. They saw their opportunity at once, and securing a 

 number of baling presses, set to work cutting and baling hay for the Southern market. 



The hay proved popular and sold wherever tried, stock delighted in it, leaving all other 

 kinds to eat it. Applications naturally poured in for some of the grass, and so they sold 

 immense quantities of the seed, and also of the roots, getting large prices for both. So great 

 was its popularity that at the end of their five years lease a company of Northern men out 

 bid them, and have resorted to steam to assist in baling hay for the market. 



Egyptian sugar-cane (is its proper name) is a native of the Nile, where it grows fifteen 

 to twenty feet high. So great is its luxuriance there, that it has filled all the upper Nile so 

 that a boat can not be driven through it. Great numbers of cattle and wild animals resort to 

 it, and, in fact, it is the chief food of ruminants in that country. 



When young, it is very tender and sweet, the sap being full of sugary juice. It is a peren 

 nial plant and so vigorous that when once planted, it is a difficult matter to eradicate it, so 

 care must be taken to plant it where it can be kept in bounds. The roots are creeping and 

 throw out shoots from every joint. It is a fine fertilizer, and sown on a piece of poor washed 

 land, will in a few years restore it to fertility. But there is really not much difference where 

 it is sown, for a farmer once getting a good stand will not want to destroy it. It will bear 

 cutting three or four times a year, and in fact, this has to be done, for when it matures seed, 

 the stem and leaves are too coarse and woody for use. 



The ground must be prepared as for other grasses, and in September, the earlier the bet 

 ter ; it should be sown at the rate of one bushel of seed per acre. It can be propagated also 

 by the roots, by laying off the rows each way and dropping a joint of the root two feet apart 

 and covering with a harrow. 



It gives the earliest pastures we have, preceding blue grass, or clover, a month. Hogs 

 are fond of the roots, and any amount of rooting will not injure it. In fact, it is a stick 

 tight. 



For soiling purposes it is not equaled by any grass in our knowledge, as it can be cut 

 every two or three weeks. There is a vast amount of land in Mississippi now devoted to 

 gullies, that do not now pay their taxes, which would richly remunerate the owner, if set in 

 this grass. It is not necessary that the land should be broken up to start it; a few sprigs set 

 out here and there in the richest spots, will soon secure a stand. 



Many farmers object to it on account of its great tenacity of life, matting the soil in 

 every direction with its cane-like roots, and the rapidity with which it will spread over a 

 field, and the difficulty of eradicating it; but these very objections should be its recommenda 

 tion to the owners of worn-out fields. To destroy it and keep it down, it is only necessary to 

 pasture it closely one year, and then in the fall, turn the roots up with a big plow to the 

 freezes of winter, renewing the plowing once or twice during the winter, and then cultivating 

 the land in a hoed crop the next spring. There certainly would be no risk in sowing it upon 

 those worn-out hillsides, so many of which form unsightly scars upon the face of nature in 

 Mississippi.&quot; The illustration which is given is a very correct representation of this grass. 



Indian Grass* Wood Grass (Sorghum nutans ). This is a perennial grass, having a 

 wide range over all the country east of the Rocky Mountains. The stalks are smooth, hol 

 low, and straight, and grown from three to five feet high, having at the top a narrow pani 

 cle of handsome straw-colored or brownish flowers, drooping when mature. It flowers in 

 August 



