On Guinea Grass, 181 



attained the usual size. In June and July this plan 

 will succeed perfectly well. 



I find very little difficulty in collecting the seed,^ I 

 have already obtained a bushel in return for three or 

 four spoonfuls which I sowed on my lot in town — I 

 cut off about two feet of the top with the panicle, as 

 soon as the seed begins to fall, and after it is dry comb 

 out the seed with a coarse comb — I hope to collect at 

 least two bushels of seed during the autumn. 



As the seeds vegetate very slowly, and as many of 

 them are imperfect, the most certain mode of obtain, 

 ing the young plants, would be that practiced by the 

 cultivators of tobacco, who, early in the season, pre- 

 pare a small spot of ground by burning the surface. 

 On this they sow the seed, and tread them down with 

 their feet. They then cover the spot w ith brush wood, 

 to protect it from the action of cold winds, and the 

 seed from the depredations of birds. As soon as the 

 plants have attained the height of two or three inches, 

 and when the danger of frost is past, they should be 

 removed to the ground where they are to stand, where 



* After our early corn is bent down in this territory, we may 

 plant Guinea grass between the rows, and when we take out the 

 corn in October, the fields will afford abundance of food for fatten- 

 ing cattle. I made a small experiment in this way, and have no 

 doubt it may prove useful to those who have not a sufficiency of 

 cleared land. If corn is planted in the succeeding March, the grass 

 will not do any injury, as it does not vegetate until about the be- 

 ginning of May. I think the seed might be sowed on wheat, in 

 February or March, and as we cut our wheat about the 10th of 

 May, the young grass would grow up among the stubble. 



