402 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



years and when it can be irrigated will stand rather heavy pasturage, 

 and hogs and horses especially do remarkably well on it. I recently 

 witnessed in the Toyah Valley 30 mares with foal running on 

 alfalfa as an exclusive feed, and the mares were seal-fat, with udders 

 like those of milk cows. For a winter pasture, bur clover is ex- 

 cellent from Waco south in the rainbelt, for hogs and cattle. Horses 

 eat it indifferently. Rescue grass in the early spring is excellent 

 pasturage. In the northwestern part, especially where irrigation 

 can be practiced, Kentucky bluegrass does well. 



Prof. H. Ness, Horticulturist of the Texas Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Stations, College Station: I send you a list of a few impor- 

 tant grasses with such extemporary notes and remarks as I can 

 make in a very short time. Curly mesquite is found over the 

 entire prairie district from Parker county west and south clear 

 to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It grows to be about 

 6" to 12" high ; is a runner, forming a dense sod. As pasture grass 

 for the arid West this has no superior, inasmuch as it cures into 

 the best of hay in a dry season, recovers itself and is succulent and 

 green in a very few hours after a shower, and is exceedingly 

 nutritious. Its power of resisting drouth is remarkable. The 

 leaves may dry and curl; hence the name "curly", and the stems 

 may dry until they burn as easy as hay, and are actually dead, 

 but the joints preserve the vitality very much after the manner 

 of seeds, and are evidently store-houses of nutritive matter that 

 readily become useful as propagators of the plants after a rain. 



Paspalum dilatatum, Poir, is found mostly in the eastern half and 

 agricultural portion of Texas, especially on wet prairies, where it 

 makes a quick growth very early in the season, continuing to grow 

 until frost, so long as moisture is abundant. It is a perennial, but 

 is not a runner. The stems are ascending and the foliage very 

 heavy, with large, succulent leaves. This is one of the best pasture 

 grasses and also meadow plants of eastern Texas. It is an especially 

 good meadow plant where the land is too wet for ordinary crops. 



Carpet grass is found over the moister portion of the coast 

 country clear to the Red River, throughout the forest belt of east 

 Texas. It is common in low, wet, open places, and seems to 

 delight especially in a compact, close soil. It starts growth very 

 early in the spring and frequently remains in green and growing 

 condition until Christmas, or until killed by severe frost. It is a 

 runner and affords a sod so thick that no other grasses or weeds 



