42 FARMER'S BOOK OF GRASSES 



States, Creeping Dog's-tooth grass in England, Chiendent in 

 France, and Doob or Durva in the East Indies, are different com- 

 mon names for the grass called by botanists Oynodon dactylon" 



This writer continues : "In one respect it is the most remark- 

 able grass within our knowledge, as one can with equal ease find 

 that it is the most valuable of all the grasses, and one that is to 

 restore worn-out southern fields, and bring untold blessings 

 wherever introduced, or that on the other hand that it is a curse 

 to the soil, and that when this once gets a footing upon a farm, 

 the owner may as well give it up at once, as to do so at the end 

 of a struggle in which he is sure to be worsted." One side or the 

 other may be true as one's stand point may be different from that 

 of another. It without previous preparation of the land, one 

 breaks it up while well set with this grass and plants his crop, he 

 will find it indeed an unmitigated curse in the management of 

 his crop. If on the other hand he needs it as a pasture and hay 

 grass and renovator of the soil he will pronounce it as nearly as 

 can be an unmixed blessing. 



Sixty years ago Mr. Elliott said very justly, of this grass, it is 

 "tender, delicate, growing over and binding the most arid and 

 loose sands in our country, and apparently preferred by stock of 

 all descriptions to every other grass." The last portion of this 

 statement has been verified annually for the last thirty years on 

 a common three miles west of Woodville, Mississippi, hundreds 

 of animals feeding there on this grass summer and winter. This 

 is true also of localities on the St. Catharine bottoms near Nat- 

 chez and hundreds of other places. 



Mr. Elliott adds "The cultivation of this grass on the poor 

 and extensive sand hills of our middle country would probably 

 convert them into sheep walks of great value ; but it grows in 

 every soil, and no grass in close, rich land is more formidable 

 to the cultivator ; it must therefore be introduced with caution." 

 Thousands can confirm this statement also. Yet I know farm- 

 ers who take pains to introduce and retain it on their 'cultivated, 

 'close, rich lands.' But they keep it under sufficient subjection 

 to interfere but little with cultivation; and they think that by 

 preventing the land from washing and improving it otherwise, 

 this grass more than pays for the little additional expense of cul- 

 ture. But a poor manager or indolent planter would do well to 

 keep it out of his cultivated fields. 



As a permanent pasture grass, I know no other that I consid- 

 er so valuable as this, after having transplanted it from near 

 the mouth of Red River to my present residence thirty-five 

 years ago and having studied it on hundreds of other farms, 

 commons and levees for a longer period. Under the head of 

 Blue grass I give in a table the comparative quantities of nutri- 

 tive matter of the two grasses, the analysis showing the Bermu- 



