SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 361 



unless resuscitated by copious applications of manure, they would not 

 yield ^rass enough to pay the expense of ke(!j)ing them under fence, until 

 they had lain waste for a quarter of a century. 



Another cause of the failures which have attended some of the efforts to 

 introduce the culture of clover and the grasses on the tide-water zone, in 

 the Southern States, may, and probably has, existed in the improper selec- 

 tion of the varieties sown. As the firtst crop on a very meager soil — red 

 clover, for example — is not appi'opriate in any region. In Flanders, the 

 natural soils of much of which so closely resemble those of the zone under 

 examination, it js not sown until the land is enriched and got in condition 

 by several preparatory crops.* The diflevent grasses seem to be affected 

 by various conditions in the soil or atmosphere, or both, which it is fre- 

 quently difficult or impossible to detect. Timothy grass (Phleum pratensc) 

 is decidedly the favorite meadow grass of the grazing regions of New- 

 York. AVhite clover ( Trifulium rcpcns) invariably comes up spontane- 

 ously on those lands. Red clover ( T. 'pratmsc) is sometimes sown with 

 Timothy in meadows, and generally in pastures. Red Top* ( Agrostis 

 ( striata J vulgaris) is preferred on wot lands, where it comes up spontane- 

 ously. It is considered a prime pasture and meadow grass in such situa- 

 tions. June or Spear gi-ass (Poa pratcnsi.s), the Blue grass of the South 

 em and Western States, so prized there and also in England,t is consid- 

 ered an unprofitable intruder in our meadows, where it comes up sponta- 

 neously, and ultimately drives out the Timothy. The meadows are then 

 said to be " run out," and are broken up. I have never known the seed 

 of this grass sown in a single instance ! The favorite Rye grasses of Eng- 

 land (Liolium pcrcnne. var. hiennc), Lucern ( Medicago sativa), Sainfoin 

 ( Hedijsarum o?iibrichi.'i J, Orchard grass ( Dactylis glomerata), and various 

 others equally celebrated in England and on the Continent, have been 

 tried in New-York, and the experiments are generally regarded as decided 

 fiilures. None of them, at all events, have obtained a footing among the 

 grasses sown by our best farnlers. On the other hand, the Red Top of 

 New-York is but little regarded in England, | and Timothy was not in 

 much better repute imtil the Woburn experiments demonstrated its great 

 value for hay. Even now it is considered inferior, in general value, to 

 many other grasses. || All this goes to show that even the hardiest grasses 

 have their favorite situations ; and that we are not authorized to pronounce 

 against the practicability of forming pastures and m(!adows in a given re- 

 gion, because we have failed in a trial with two or three gi'asses, out of a 

 list of as many hundi'eds. 



It has already been remarked that there are patches of good natural 

 pasture on the dry as well as the wet portions of the tide-water zone. 

 These are frequent and extensive, and could be rendered infinitely more 

 so by simply clearing the land. In your Memoir on the Cultivation of 

 Rice, furnished to INIr. Ruffin, while making the Agricultural Sui"v-ey of 

 South Carolina, in 1843, you say : 



" At first, rice wns cultivated on the high land, and on little spots of low ground, as they 

 were met with here and there. These low f^ronnds beinfj found to aj^ee better witli the 

 plant, the inland swamps were cleared for tJio j'tirpose of extending the culture. In the 

 process of time, as the fields became too ^-assy and stubborn, they were abandoned for new 

 clearings ; and so on, until at length was discovered the superior adaptation of the tide-lands, 

 ajid tlie great facihties for irrigation afforded by their location. For the.se, the iiilan<i pliuita- 

 tions were gradually and slowly abiuidoned, until now, that the gi-eat body of land, which 



» Pometimcs known ivs " Uprii;ht Bont irrass." and in the Southern States as Herds-grass. 

 t Pron<ninced by Sole the host of all the crasses. 



S Agrostis fid^aris is pronounced •' a worthless or rather a mischievouc plant," by Sir Georpe Sinclair I 

 "Our opinion." says Loudon, •• is that neither Timothy nor (some other grasses named) is ever likely 

 to be cultivated in Britain." 

 (745) 



