AND OTHER FORAGE PLANTS. 119 



cient to render it so coarse and hard that animals refuse it, or 

 eat sparingly. 



This plant is much more nutritious than the true Guinea 

 grass as will be seen by comparing the analyses of the two made 

 by Mr. Collier. 



ANALYSIS QF SORGHUM HALAPENSE. 



Oil, 2.25 Amylaceous cellulose, 25.87 



Wax, .61 Alkali extract, % 15.58 



Sugars, 7.37 Albuminoids, ' 13.18 



Gum and dextrin, 6.14 Ash, 4.85 



Cellulose, 25.15 



100.00 



ANALYSIS OF A*SH. 



Potassium, 3.68 Sulphuric acid; 2.96 



Potassium oxide, 35.72 Phosphoric acid, 10.44 



Sodium, .81 Silicic acid, 22.21 



Calcium oxide, 12.87 Chlorine, 4.58 



Magnesium oxide, 6.73 



100.00 



A few testimonials are here quoted to give an idea of the pro- 

 ductiveness and value of this plant. In a letter published in 

 the Rural Carolinian for 1874, Mr. N. B. Moore, who had for 

 more than forty years grown only grass crops, speaks of this 

 grass under the name of Guinea grass. He says he prefers it to 

 all others after having faithfully tried many. "It is perennial, 

 is as nutritious as any other ; when once well set, is difficult 

 to eradicate ; will grow on ordinary land and yields abundantly. 



"My meadow consists of one hundred acres of alluvial land, 



near Angus" a In winter I employ but four men, who are 



enough to work my packing press ; in summer when harvesting, 

 double that number. In autumn, I usually scarify both ways with 

 sharp, steel-toothed harrows, and sow over the stubble a peck 

 of red clover per acre, which, with volunteer vetches, comes off 

 about the middle of May. The second yield of clover is uni- 

 formly eaten up by grasshoppers. The tap-root remains to fer- 

 tilize the then coming Guinea grass, which should be cut from 

 two to three feet high. . . . On such land as mine, it will afford 

 three or four cuttings if the season is propitious. I use an av- 

 erage of five tons of gypsum soon after the first cutting, and 

 about the same quantity of the best commercial fertilizers in 



March or April The grass which is cut before noon, is put 



up with horse sulky rakes, in cocks, before sundown." * 



Mr. Moore's income from this field was from seven thousand 

 to ten thousand dollars a year. 



Mr. Goelzel of Mobile says, "It is undoubtedly the most prof- 



