366 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



a warm climate, but it requires a good soil. It has been caltivated with 

 great success by Mr. Aflleck in (Adams county) Mississippi. 



Bermuda grass* ( Ci/nodon dactjjlon) I have been led to consider, from 

 the representations of Mr. Affleck, as the bqst grass, both forpastuie and 

 meadow, on the sterile sands of the tide-water zone. If half this enthu- 

 siastic admirer believes of it is true, it is of inestimable value to the South, 

 and for permanent pastures and meadows, is by far the best grass in the 

 United States. Mr. A. says : 



" We are fully aware of all the objectioiiti made to the spreading of this grass, and have 

 a practical knowledge of iiU the trouble it occasions ; and having also had several yeara' ex- 

 perience of its great, its incalculable value, we have no liesitation in 8t;iting that the latter is 

 manifold greater than the formt^r. The time is not far distjuit when all the rough feed cdd- 

 sumed on phuitations will be made from this grass ; and when the planter will consider hia 



hay crop as of much more importance than his sugar or cotton The excellence of this 



plant for pasturage is evinced by two circumstances. It is prefeiTed by stock of every de- 

 scription to all other gi'siss, and it grows luxuriantly in every kind of soil. It possesses an 

 additional advantage, that of binding the loosest and most bairen sandy ti'acts. But when it 

 has once taken iwssession of close, rich soil, its extirpation is so difficult as almost to defy all 

 the skill, industry and perseverance of farmers. It is used to bind the levees on the banks 

 of the Mississippi, and of railroads. We saw it at Macon, Geo., Charleston, S. C, and so 

 on, as far north as City Point, Virginia, where it partially covers the wharf. One hundi-ed 

 poimds of grass afford upward of fifty of dry hay ; and we do cut. as a regulai* crop, five 

 tons of hay per acre each season. Were we to state how much more lias been cut, we might 

 strain the belief of om- readers. No other grass will yiekl such an amount of valuable hay ; 

 surpass it ui nutritive qualities ; support on an acre of pasture such a quantity of stock ; will 

 improve the soil more quickly ; or so effectually stop and fill up a wash or gully. But, on 

 the other hand, its extirpation, when once well established, is almost impossible ; though to 

 check and weaken it, so far as to grow a grain or cotton crop, is easy enough. To do tlois, 

 pursue the course of the best fanners of Kentucky in their management of a blue-grass sod — 

 with a good breaking plow, having a wheel and coulter, and a stout team, turn over evenly 

 and nicely a sod four inches thick and as wide as the plow and team are capable of, follow 

 in the same furrow with another plow which casts the dirt well, and throw out as nuich of 

 the fi-esh earth on top of the sod as possible or the depth of the soil will aihnit of. The crop 

 that follows can easily be tended without disturbmg the sod, and its gi'adual decay will 

 greatly increase whatever crop may be planted on it — and that -should be a shading one, 

 com and peas or pumpkins, or whiter oats followed by peas. Good farmers will understand 

 that heavy crops of hay cannot be removed, for many successive yeais, from any land, with- 

 out some return in the shape of manure. To the careful, judicious fai-mer, who wishes to 

 improve his land and his stock, and who does not expect to grow any crop wilhont trouble 

 and who uses good plows, and keeps a stout team and that in prime order, we earnestly 

 recommend to try an acre or two of this grass, in a situation where it ciumot readily spread. 

 To the careless farmer we say, toucli it uot."t 



Tke same gentleman writes me under date of Dec. 10th, 1846 : 



" Bemiuda grass well set, which aff"ords the finest and most nutritious pasturage I have 

 ever seen, will keep almost any number of sheep to the acre — tlu-ee (jr foiu' tunes as many 

 us the best blue-grass ! " 



Unless this is gross and willful exaggeration,! here you have a grass 

 which is not only highly palatable and nutritive, but which will yield 

 more than double both of pasturage and liay, than the best grass or clover 

 of the Northern States! 1| It has been tried as far south as New-Orleans, 

 and the climate found no detriment to it. It will flourish on dry and al- 

 most barren sands.§ What can the farmer on the dry lands of the tide- 

 water zone ask more % [ts inextirpable charaeter I regard as decidedly in 



* Cumberland Grass — Wire grass of Virginia — Creeping Panic grass. 



f See Norman's Souliiem ,\^ricultural Almanac, for 1847. 



% Neither of wliicii are we penuiueti to suspect, from tiie well-laiown character and intelligence of Mr. 

 AlHeck. 



11 P''0!)le here in the North sometimes talk of gettini; three tons of timothy and four tons of clover (at 

 two C'itlii'.iis) per acn', but il is not done on one acre in u^ii tlioiisuii.l, on the bi^it meadows ! Two tons is 

 n good, and by fur above a medium yield, of liiiioUiy, and three, of clover. The larije amounts of Ber- 

 muda sometimes cut, which Mr. A. does not menlion for fear of "straining the belief of his readers." ho 

 )ia8 stated to me jjer^onutly. to be ciglit tons I '. — (Equivalent to the yield of thret first-rulo acres of tiinolb/ 

 on thebeft grazing Inndj of Southern Now-Vork. 



§ Mr. Afileck informs me he has rcpouledly seen ii growing w;U in such situations. 

 (75UJ 



