THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



395 



ficially will probably account for many of the dif- 

 ficulties we experience in brin(>;ing certain fi-uite, 

 the NeuMowii pippin, the cherry, the 'xr.ipe, the 

 peach, and the almond, to the perlcclion they 

 acquire iu other countries. 



BERMUDA GRASS. 



From the [Millodgcville] Recorder. 



Messrs. Grieve Sc Orme : — In one ol" your 

 March numbers, 1 invoked the attention of larni- 

 ers to the exhausted condiiion of our farms; 

 the ruinous policy of making cotton to purchase 

 corn, tlour, and pork with ; and, in conclut^ion, 

 I solicited the aid of the intluenlial and intelli- 

 gent, in arresting the evils ihat had and were 

 likely to beliil us. None having been aroused at 

 the awliil calamity iliat awaits us, I am constrain- 

 ed, still hoping, 10 appear over my humble sig- 

 naiute again, to delend Irom the many curses 

 thai have been heaped upon it, and to recommend 

 with coiifulence to farmers, a grass, the name ol 

 which heatis this ariicle. 



I am aware of the Herculean task that I have 

 undertaken, to delend and bring into popular 

 lavor a thing that has Jaeen almost universally 

 conilemned — that nearly every man is prepared 

 to decide against before he hears the tesiimony ; 

 nevertheless, il any thing shori of the resurrec- 

 tion of I he dead will suffice, I am able to prove 

 that the prejudices enieriained against it, are from 

 a want of a correct knowledge of it, both as re- 

 gards the evils and benefits. Then first, the 

 objections to it ; and what are they '? They 

 are that where it once gets hold it never can be 

 eradicated ; and second, if a farmer gets even a 

 small bed ol ii on his farm, that there is perlect 

 ceriainty ol its goiny all over it sooner or later ; 

 consequently ruin ensues to the farm. Are you 

 acquainied wiih the Bermuda grass 1 does u 

 bear seed? have you ever rubbed them out? 

 Can you distinguish between that and two other 

 grasses that resemble it in all us habits save that 

 of bearing seed, both of which, as well as the 

 Bermuda grass, are frequently by the unobserv- 

 ing called wire grass. The name is not applica- 

 ble to either ol ihe ihree grasses, but properly 

 belongs to a native of the southern counties of 

 Georgia ; hence the name wire grass counties. 

 The Bermuda grass, by being conlounded wiih 

 two other grasses very nearly resembling it, and 

 by the imprudence ollurmers, who have purchased 

 their neighbors' lands, whose yards were planted 

 in it, has suffered very great prejudice. First 

 by being taken for a grass thai u propagated, 

 both from the seed and root ; and second, fi-om 

 its becoming scattered over fields from the yards 

 of old settled places, purchased by an adjoining 

 farmer ; the houses removed, the yard turned 

 inio the adjoming field, an attempt is made to 

 eradicate the grass ; the plough passes through 

 the yard and on through the field ; at every pas- 

 satre ol the plough a sprig or root is tak-cnout 

 on the adjoiumg ground ; ii being tenacious of 

 lile lakes root and grows ; thus in a few years 

 the field becomes inlested with Bermuda grass, 

 very much to the annoyance of the owner, 

 chargeable to his own b;id conduct however. 

 If Ii, ubandoned lor culilvaiion, and becomes one 



of the richest and best pastures, from which his 

 cows return every evening with the milk stream- 

 ing Irom their udders; irom which he can take 

 a lat lamb at pleasure, and on which his hogs 

 keep lai without corn ; therefore the curse, as 

 he once considered it, was a blessing in disguise. 

 The two grasses that are conlounded with 

 the Bermuda g:ass, and somewhat resemble ii, 

 and very much resemble each other, both bear 

 seed, and thfrefbre are liable to be scattered by 

 stock grazing on il when the seed are ripe. 

 i One is a native ol swamp lands, \\n[\ grow in the 

 ! vvaier, has a black seed vvhen ripe, a jointed stem 

 ' of a reddish purple color, takes root at every 

 joint, the siem covered wiih a shuck on which 

 I he leaves are Ibrmed, around the base of the 

 leaf is covered wiih a fine furze ; in ihis ii difiers 

 I Irom tfie Bermuda, as weil as its texture being 

 ' coarser and not affording as much foliage, less 

 ' velvet-like in its leeling, and not so graielul to 

 i stock. This grass <jrovvs on upland, and of a wet 

 ' year luxuriantly. The other is a native of up- 

 'iand, approaching much nearer the texture of 

 i ihe Bermuda, wiih a purplish stem, wiih all the 

 ! habits of the other, with the fine furze around the 

 I base of the leaf, and bears seed ; ii takes a close 

 observer to dislinguish between tins and the Ber- 

 ; muda. These two grasses are natives of Geor- 

 ! gia, and abound in the neighborhood of Greens- 

 ' boro, where you may also find the Bermuda 

 ' grass, i have in that town, within five feet of 

 ' Ihe same spot, gaihered sprigs ol each, and con- 

 vinced gentlemen of the difference between them. 

 ! The Bermuda grass, as I am inibrmed by a gen- 

 j tleman of this county, is a native of the island 

 1 of Bermuda, was brought to this state by a gen- 

 1 tleman who lived in the southern part of the 

 : state, and brought to ihis county Irom there for 

 a yard grass. By this means it has found its 

 way into most yards of middle Georgia, and bv 

 the means above stated, ino a lew fieids. Wher- 

 ever It has been cultivated for grazing, ihe most 

 satisfactory result has been obtained. The Ber- 

 muda grass bears no seed ; and as a proof of my 

 conviction of this fact, 1 will present any man 

 vvitha beaver hat who will present me vvuh one 

 I hall-pini of the seed of that valuable grass. 

 i There is therelore no danger of its being spread 

 I by stock ; it will go no farther than il can run in 

 I a season, which on an average is about three feet, 

 unless the sprig is carried by tlie plough or some 

 I other means ; it is tenacious ol lile, and apt to 

 live wherever dropped, esfiecially in vvei weather. 

 A twelve-inch plank laid fiat on the surface of the 

 ground will confine it as long as the plank will 

 last. It will not grow in the shade ; a field of 

 Bermuda grass surrounded with a fence permit- 

 ted td grow up in ihe corners with bushes and 

 br'ere, as they usually are in Georgia, will con- 

 tine it lor all time unless taken out by design. 

 ' To the objection that it cannot be eradicated, I 

 will remark that it can be as easily destroyed as 

 i the northern farmers destroy their herds-grass 

 and green-sward, by the same sort of operation, 

 I or by covering it with litter and excluding the 

 light and heat from it ; and vvhen (he grass is 

 destroyed you have a field richer than it ever was, 

 if the grass had been on it ten or twelve years. 

 'I'liere is, however, no necessity lor destroying it, 

 because it will pay a belter profit lor grazing than 

 I any land you cultivate. Experience has proved 



