44 FARMER'S BOOK OF GRASSES 



factory. On good soil it covers the ground densely several in- 

 ches deep with its prostrate stems and dense leafage which is 

 always moist even in dry weather. 



It does not bear dense shade, and when grown in shade is, 

 like other plants, much less nutritious. It grows best where 

 most exposed to the intensest heat of the sun. It bears drought 

 better perhaps than any other of our grasses. But its under- 

 ground roots or stems being near the surface and hogs being 

 very fond of them in dry weather, at such times, if these ani- 

 mals are confined to small lots of this grass, they eat every root 

 and thus exterminate the grass. I have seen this occur more 

 than once to my own serious detriment. 



As a fertilizer it is one of the best. Being always moist and, 

 where the.growlh is vigorous, studded w r ith dew drops under- 

 neath throughout the dryest, hottest days ; air enmeshed in large 

 quantity, as in the packings for ice, in its densely tangled and 

 packed masses seems to keep the carpeted earth cool and moist 

 in hot weather and warm in cold weather. Hence the continu- 

 ous, ceaseless absorption, condensation and storage of plant food 

 from the atmosphere in the roots, and subjacent soil. Nor is 

 this all ; perhaps not its most important influence in fertilizing 

 the soil. At any rate a more remote or secondary effect, though 

 so far as I am aware wholly ignored, is of no little importance 1 

 in arriving at its value as a fertilizer. It is well known that 

 earth worms have the power under certain conditions of impro- 

 ving and elevating the soil, and even making soil where there 

 is none, by elaborating materials from the subsoil and atmos- 

 phere and depositing on the surface the manufactured fertilizer. 

 I have often looked with wonder and admiration at the vast 

 amount of this kind of beneficent work performed by these little 

 creatures in a single night. 



A piece of ground well coated with this grass is the paradise 

 of these worms rather the cheerful laboratory of these indus- 

 trious little manufacturers of fertilizers. Many may be surpri- 

 sed to learn that here on any pleasant night and often day, the 

 sounds emanating from the industrial works of these pigmies 

 may be distinctly heard. With all their might, little individal- 

 ly it is true, but in the combination of vast numbers mighty, they 

 are constructing soil for the intelligent farmer. 



Nor is this all; their bodies are made up very largely of al- 

 buminoids, the best plant food, and these as the successive 

 generations die are added to the soil. I will not stop to men- 

 tion other benefits bestowed on the soil by other kinds of labor 

 of this industrial hive. But I must not omit another good 

 growing out of the presence of these worms. 



Such a Bermuda grass meadow as that described is in summer 

 a paradise for pigs too, not merely for the grass, the Value of 

 which all recognize, and which the pigs enjoy, but the benefit 



