VOL. XII. NO. 31. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



245 



From the Genesee Farmer. 

 GAMA GRASS. 



Planters in the southern states for several years 

 past have been turning their attention to the culture 

 of a native grass which promises great advantage. 

 It is said to have been " first found in the south- 

 west [from Mobile] and principally through the 

 provinces of South America, where it is culled by 

 the Spaniards the Gama Grass." Dr. Hardeman 

 of Missouri appears to have been the first cultiva- 

 tor of this plant in the United States; but whether 

 lie found the seed there, or procured it from the 

 Spaniards, I have no evidence to show. It is cer- 

 tain however, that it is a native of various parts ol 

 the Union. Along the sea coast it has been found 

 as far north as Connecticut ; and in the interior on 

 the Schuylkill '25 miles above Philadelphia, where 

 I presume I have also seen it growing. 



This grass has been long known to botanists 

 under the name of Tripsacum dactyloids and Trip- 

 sacum monostachyon, which are found however, to 

 be only varieties of the same species ; but the 

 knowledge that it was worthy of cultivation ap- 

 pears to have been derived from the Spanish 

 Americans. One writer in North Carolina says, 

 " I have had it in view as worthy the farmer's no- 

 tice, these twenty years ;" and another observes, 

 that " unless lands are enclosed, the grazing tribe 

 will not permit it to rise into notice." 



From the following remarks of ll. B. Croom, a 

 distinguished botanist of Newbern, N. C. we may 

 understand something of the situation of our breth- 

 ren of the South — " while the northern and west- 

 ern portions of our country are provided with a 

 variety of valuable grasses, suited to their climate 

 and soils, the alluvial [?] portions of the southern 

 states are entirely destitute of these useful auxilia- 

 ries ; for I believe that neither clover, timothy, 

 herd's grass, orchard grass, nor any of those 

 grasses derived from northern climates, have prov- 

 ed, nor ever will prove extensively beneficial. 

 The consequence is that throughout this extensive 

 portion of country no hay is made ; and the only 

 native produce relied on as provender for horses 

 and other cattle, is, the dried blades of Indian com. 

 Hence the planter's [live] stock is generally stinted 

 during the winter, and the products of his dairy 

 rendered extremely meagre : butter, cheese, and 

 even hay, are exported from the north.'" 



A grass that will more than place them on an 

 equality with us, must therefore be of immense 

 importance. The same writer continues : " The 

 zealous advocates of this grass have assured us 

 that it will yield from seventy to ninety tons of 

 green hay, or from twenty to thirty tons of 

 cured hay to the acre. But if there should be any 

 exaggeration in this, we may reduce the estimate 

 one half, and the produce will still remain ample 

 enough to make its cultivation highly profitable. 

 Ten tons of cured hay is equivalent to twenty-five 

 ordinary stacks of our fodder, and thus the product 

 of five acres of Gama grass, would equal one hun- 

 dred and twenty-five stacks of corn fodder, which 

 is more than is obtained from three hundred acres of 

 corn on common soils." 



N. Herbemont of Columbia in South Carolina, 

 well known as a valuable and scientific corres- 

 pondent of the American Farmer, says, "The hay, 

 I have no doubt will be found excellent. As to 

 the amount of produce, it is most probable that in 

 the account which I have seen, stating that it 

 would be about ' three hundred thousand pounds 

 of grass to the acre,' the person who made it was 



rather too sanguine ; but there can be no doubt of 

 its being the most productive and easy cultivated 

 grass ever tried in this country." 



Wm. B. Meares of Sampson county in North 

 Carolina, says, "Mr. Magoffin informs us he has 

 actually made at the rate of ninety tons of green 

 iy per acre in one year — equal to between twenty 



and thirty tons of cured hay. Dr. Hardeman states 

 that a single root, covering a circle, the diameter 

 of which was two feet, yielded at one cutting fifty- 

 two pounds of green hay, which when dried 

 weighed twenty pounds; and consequently that an 

 acre of ground filled with roots equally productive 

 would yield more than two hundred and seventy 

 tons of hay. However exorbitant these accounts 

 may appear at first, the high standing of these 

 gentlemen leaves no room to doubt their accuracy. 

 My own experiments induced me to believe that 

 under circumstances in all regards favorable they 

 may be realized." 



The following extracts are descriptive of the 

 habits of this grass: — "They came up in a few 

 days," says J. Magoffin, " and appeared in the 

 form of young oats." He transplanted them, and 

 adds: "The rapidity of their growth astonished 

 me, and I found by September each plant a bunch 

 offne blades — three and a half or four feet high" 

 — it was "a mass of blades rising from the roots, 

 almost perpendicular, exhibiting a most beautiful 

 appearance of vegetable luxuriance." — "The leaves 

 previous to flowering all issue from the same root, 

 — are of a deep green color, from two to three 

 feet long, and from one to an inch and a half wide, 

 shaped like a blade of fodder." — " The flodder 

 stems shoot up from different parts of the bunch 



and grow from three to seven feet high." " When 



the seed is ripening on the end of the seed stalk, 

 six to eight feet high, the mass of leaves appear to 

 undergo no change" [but continue green.] 



To show the rapidity of its growth, I make the 

 extracts that follow : A leaf, the growth of twelve 

 days, was sent to the Editor of the American Far- 

 mer, who says, " The blade of Gama grass en- 

 closed in the letter measures thirty-two and a half 

 inches in length." J. Magofliu remarks, " When 

 all surrounding vegetation was literally burnt up 

 [this grass] was green and flourishing; and during 



the month of July it grew forty-three inches." 



" It was cut on the first day of every month, 

 ranging from three and a half to four and a half 

 feet in height." It grows well in both sandy and 

 clayed soils. 



In regard to its nutritious qualities the following 

 testimony is selected : " Its taste resembles young 

 corn blades — a taste of all others the most agreea- 

 ble to animals. I found every thing was prodi- 

 giously fond of it, especially horses and cattle. A 

 distinguished farmer and iron-master, found on 

 trial that his mules performed their work with 

 plenty of this grass and salt, rendering the addi- 

 tion of corn unnecessary. — " When made into hay, 



it becomes of a singular agreeable flavor." " I 



have fairly tested its value in milk and butter. I 

 cut at fifteeu days growth, when it exhibits pecul- 

 iar delicacy, and fed two cows, and perfectly in 

 recollection of the fine butter of the Philadelphia 

 Jersey market, I am assured it exceeds for delicacy 

 the production of clover pastures, and is fully equal 

 in that richness peculiar to the fine butter of that 

 market-house. This I had been informed would 

 be the case, by a Spanish gentleman, a native of 

 those provinces of South America in which it 

 abounds, and where it is so highly valued for its 



extraordinary nutritive properties in the support of 

 the horse, mule and ox." 



To the kindness of Thomas S. Pleasants, of 

 Beaverdam in Virginia, I am indebted for a small 

 packet of seed, and I hope to be able to give it a 

 fair trial in this northern climate. " It is proba- 

 ble," says II. B. Croom, " that this is one of the 

 few valuable grasses that adapt themselves to every 

 climate and every soil." J), f. 



Greatfield, Cayuga Co. 12 mo. 21, 1833. 



From the New York Farmer. 

 CULTIVATION OP PEACH TREES. 



Peach trees may be preserved by good man- 

 agement, twenty, and probably forty or fifty years. 

 They are destroyed from north latitude forty to 

 thirty-six degrees, by a worm which feeds on the 

 inner bark of the tree, at its root. This worm is 

 said to be the offspring of a fly of the wasp kind, 

 which deposits its eggs in the bark of the root of 

 the tree, while it is young and tender. The rem- 

 edy consists in searching for the openings in the 

 bark at the root, and taking them out. If this op- 

 eration is repeated three or four springs, the worm 

 never after can make a lodgment there. The 

 bark of the tree by this time becomes so hard, 

 that the fly cannot make the puncture, in order to 

 deposit the egg, or if deposited it perishes. After 

 the worm is cut out in the spring, draw the earth 

 up around the body six or eight inches above the 

 other ground. 



Of all the fruit trees produced in this climate, 

 none bears pruning so freely as the peach ; indeed, 

 it should be treated very much as the vine is. All 

 those branches which have borne fruit should be 

 cut out, if there is young wood to supply their pla- 

 ces. Proof — take a limb which has borne two or 

 three crops of fruit, and notice its produce ; take 

 another on the same tree, which has never borne 

 at all, and the fruit on this last will be twice the 

 size of the former, fairer, and less liable to rot. In 

 pruning, the branches should be taken or cut out 

 of the middle of the tree : thus giving more air 

 and sun to the fruit on the outer limbs. 



The peach tree produces best fruit when the 

 ground is not stirred about it when the fruit is on. 

 When it has no fruit, it should be cultivated as 

 carefully as a cabbage, or any other plant. 



The above comprises the most important points 

 in the rearing of peach trees, and good fruit ; if 

 attended to, I have never known them to fail, — 

 and my experience has not been very limited. 



I repeat what may, perhaps, be doubted ; that 

 the peach tree, if the worm is kept out of the root, 

 will live, at least, twenty years ; and that this may 

 certainly be done by attacking them the first year 

 of its growth, and continuing to extract them for 

 three or four years in succession, not forgetting to 

 draw the earth up as directed. Straw, chips, or 

 trash of any kind, serve the purpose just as well. 

 Very respectfully, yours, &c. R. H. B. 

 Washington City, JYov. 26, 1833. 



BLACK TONGUE. 



A person who has had much experience in the 

 care of horses informs us that he has fouud Sweet 

 Oil (Oil of Olives) an infallible remedy for this 

 loathsome and dangerous disorder. — He raises the 

 horse's mouth by the bit, and then turns the oil 

 from a bottle into the mouth till he swallows. In 

 this way he administers it twice or three times a 

 day. — Worcester Spy. 



