On Guinea Grass, 179 



that the Scots grass^ which he seems to consider as 

 far inferior to the Guinea grass, is so productive, that 

 one acre of it will support five horses the whole year 

 round, allowing each horse 56 pounds per day, which 

 is 102,200 pounds per acre. vol. 1, p. 185. 



It is not pretended that the Fiorin grassf which, of 

 late, has excited so much attention in Europe, will pro- 

 duce more than nine tons of hay per acre, and Mr. 

 Livingston bestows great encomiums on Lucerne, 

 which requires much more cultivation than Guinea 

 grass, and yields only 4500 pounds per acre, at three 

 cuttings. I am informed that the best timothy mea- 

 dows in Kentucky never produce more than six tons 

 per acre, in the most favourable seasons. But I am 

 sufficiently aware of the fallacy of such calculations as 

 I have been making. An experiment on a large scale 

 is absolutely necessary to the attainment of an accurate 



* Panicum hirtellum Lin. 

 t For an account of this grass see " Dr. Mease's Archives of 

 useful knowledge" Vol. II, No. III. The plate of it given in that 

 work might be readily mistaken for the Bermuda grass in this 

 Territory, which the late much lamented Mr. Dunbar, had so much 

 merit in introducing, and which will be found so valuable when 

 the planters begin to perceive the folly of encreasing the number 

 of their slaves instead of breeding Merino sheep. Few men were 

 more capable of forming a just estimate of the comparative value 

 of the stock farm and the cotton plantation than Mr. Dunbar — 

 The cultivation of cotton, he has often observed yielded a miserable 

 return compared to the profits of a stock of Merinos. His solici- 

 tude to procure that precious breed of sheep, for some months be- 

 fore his death, ought to suggest to his survivors the true and per' 

 haps the only means of restoring the country to its former flourish- 

 ing condition. 



