124 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



Carpet Grass (The Paspalums). There are several 

 species of paspalum. They are low, creeping, spreading 

 grasses that come in moist land in the South. They make 

 the best grazing on the lowland prairies of Florida, and 

 are often seen in Louisiana. Animals like to graze on 

 carpet grass, but it is less nutritious than Bermuda, 

 which it sometimes crowds out. I do not know that seed 

 of these native carpet grasses is ever sold ; it is sometimes 

 spread by cutting the ripe stems and spreading them over 

 the land. The carpet grasses are good pasture grasses 

 and are mentioned here because probably southern read- 

 ers may desire to know how good a thing they may have 

 growing wild. Compared with Bermuda the paspalums 

 are hardier, and are green in cold weather, though they 

 do not actually grow unless there is some warmth in the 

 soil. They are easily eradicated by land cultivation. 



Texas Blue grass (Poa arichnifera) . Perhaps this 

 should have been described among the poas. It is left 

 for this place because it is distinctively a southern grass. 

 If only it had some way of easy distribution and seed- 

 ing, it would be an invaluable grass for southern soils. 

 It makes a very beautiful sward, which is green at near- 

 ly all seasons in the South. It is thus far better than 

 Bermuda grass for a lawn. In Kansas, Prof. Shelton re- 

 ports that it is hardy and that it yields three or four 

 times as much as Kentucky bluegrass. The seed of Tex- 

 as bluegrass is very light and peculiar, having a cobwebby 

 feel. I have not been able to get a stand of grass by sow- 

 ing the seed, though it has ai way of thickening itself af- 

 ter the manner of poas when one gets a thin stand. It is 



