FARMERS' REGISTER— GAM A GRASS— SOUTHWESTERN PRAIRIES. 367 



any person of the correctness of this method, let 

 him notice, when passing along a lane where the 

 field is infested with this growth, — a plenty may 

 he seen in the enclosure, but not one outside the 

 field, unless it is too high lor cattle to trim the 

 leaves olf. I am satisfied it is a great impoverisher. 

 Kespectfiilly, your obedient servant, 



Wm. R. Smith, Sen'r. 



GAMA GRASS. 



Extract of a letter from N. Herbcmont, Esq. to the Editor of the 

 Southern Agriculturist. 

 It is supposed that this grass is rather too coarse 

 and rough. It would, perhaps, be so, if it were 

 kept till it is too old before it is cut for fodder. As 

 I intend to save all the seed of it in my power, in 

 order to plant as much of it as I can, I reserved 

 only a small portion of the grass for cutting, and 

 it^was cut for the fourth time this season, on the 

 27th July. It might have been cut at least once 

 more, if I had begun earlier as I should have done; 

 and I expect to cut it at least three times more. I 

 wish I may find it practicable to send you, sir, a 

 specimeii of the hay, as also specimens of the stalks 

 with their various spikes for botanical examination. 

 The hay, I have no doubt, would be found excel- 

 lent. As to the amount of produce, it is probable 

 that the account I have seen, stating that it would 

 be about 300,000 lbs. of green grass of the various 

 cuttings of one season, per acre, the person that 

 made the supposition may have been rather too 

 sanguine; but there cannot be any doubts of its 

 being the most productive and easily cultivated 

 grass ever tried in this country. 



GAMA GRASS. 



Extract from the Southern Planter. 



About 18 months since, I received some seed of 

 the Gama Grass from Mr. Legare, and planted 

 them in my garden, only three came up, enough 

 however, to enable me to identify with it other 

 grass, which I soon after noticed and watched till 

 it seeded, it was the Gama Grass. Mr. Bugg, to 

 whom I had given some of the seed, received li-om 

 Mr. Legare, found the same grass growing in Mr. 

 Woolfolk's plantation on the Chattahoochee river, 

 six miles below Columbus, where we both procur- 

 ed roots and seed. I subsequently found it on the 

 town common, where I also i)rocured seed and 

 roots. I have since seen it growing in the corners 

 of a fence about 5 miles from La Grange, in Troup 

 county. Dr. Ingersoll says he has it in his plan- 

 tation, 3 miles below Columbus, and Mr. Biggers 

 in his, about 8 above. I have lately seen a de- 

 scription of the grass by a Mr. Meares, I think, 

 which is so nearly correct, that persons cannot fail 

 to identify wherever they see it. I planted nearly 

 a quart of seed last spring, about one half came up, 

 and is now from two to three feet high. I have not 

 cut it. Not many of the old roots which I trans- 

 planted lived, but irom those that did live, I have 

 saved about a pint of seed, a part of which I will 

 send yon the first opportunity. As the seed are 

 enveloped by a very hard shell, some have advised 

 planting them in the fall of the year, and though I 

 have lost many by deferring till spring, 1 cannot 

 agree with them, for if placed in the open ground, 

 the rats and mice are sure to eat them ; for they 

 seem to be as fond of the seed as cattle are of the 



blades. The better plan, I think, would be to put 

 the seed in a box of earth, and place it away in the 

 cellar or some other convenient place till spring, 

 and then sow in drills in the open ground, and af- 

 terwards manage as has been directed by Mr. Ma- 

 goffin and others. I have noticed that the grass is 

 never found in large quantities, at least I have 

 never found more than twenty or thirty bunches 

 together. 



ON THE AllVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 

 OF LOCATING A PLANTING INTEREST IN 

 THE SOUTHWESTERN PRAIRIES. 



From the Southern Agriculturist. 



Dear Sir, — In my last communication,* I tried to 

 point out as correctly as my opportunities and ob- 

 servation enabled me, the advantages and disad- 

 vantages of locating a planting interest in such of 

 the Prairies of the West, as I had seen. I shall 

 now attempt some account of the other lands there, 

 and give a few hints as to the first steps that should 

 be taken by a new settler. 



The other lands are classed by planters into the 

 red and grey uplands, and the river lands. The 

 river lands are generally strips of alluvial soil im- 

 mediately on its margin, rather narrow but very 

 rich, called the first low grounds ; the second lo\v 

 grounds are much wider but not so rich ; and there 

 are large quantities of lands in the '•' bends," of 

 which tliere are a great many, from the crooked- 

 ness of the river. These "bends" or "necks," 

 often in the shape of a horse shoe, present general- 

 ly, on their upper sides, high bluffs of red land, not 

 overflowed by the river, except from very extra- 

 ordinary freshets, such as the Yazoo freshet of 

 1796, and the freshet of this spring; and on their 

 lower sides, lands frequently overflowed, but rich- 

 er on that account. The river lands are generally 

 light isinglass sands, that work freely with both 

 plough and hoe, and produce more cotton for equal 

 fertility than corn, and more cotton, and perhaps- 

 more corn than the Prairie, and are more free from 

 its little discomforts. These lands, though at this 

 time more healthy than ours, may be considered as 

 sickly, and are liable to inundation, with its disad- 

 vantages of injury to your stock, and the removal 

 of your fences, &c. 



The freshets in the Alabama river, though not as 

 regular in their periodical returns as in the Missis- 

 sippi, are generally up in (he latter part of the win- 

 ter and sjiring, and but rarely, indeed, during the 

 crop-making season. 1 am informed there has 

 been but one summer freshet to injure a crop with- 

 in the last fifteen years; it is much to be doubted 

 whether this will continue to be the case, when the 

 country above becomes more cleared and drained. 

 The freshets on this river for fifty miles below^ 

 where it receives the waters of the Coosa and the 

 Talapoosa, rise to sixty-five feet and more above 

 ordinary low-water mark ; and then do not cover 

 the high bluff lands. The great convenience of 

 having good navigation at your door for the most 

 bulky articles, with the expedition and facilities 

 offered by the steam-boats, which pass up and 

 down the river, on almost every day during the 

 winter and spring, place these lands deservedly ve- 

 ry high. 



* Farmers' Register, No. 5, p. 277. 



