Forage Plants at the South. 



15 



so. We might as soon expect wheat to be 

 turned into oats or rye, as into cheat. 



The botanical description of the Bromus 

 genus is as follows. The unlearned farmer 

 will not understand all the botanical terms, 

 but he will understand enough of them to be 

 able to detect a Brome grass by whatever 

 name it may be called. Besides, all the girls 

 who attend our female colleges study botany 

 so that if the lather cannot determine, the 

 daughter can, if she has been properly taught: 



"Spikelets from five to many flowered, 

 panielled ; glumes not quite equal, shorter 

 than the flowers, mostly keeled, the lower 

 one to five, the other three to nine nerved; 

 palcae herbaceous, lower one convex on the 

 back or compressed, keeled, five to nine 

 nerved ; awned or bristle-pointed from below 

 the tip ; upper palca at length adhering to the 

 groove of the oblong grain ; fringed on the 

 keel ; stamens three ; styles attached below 

 the apex of the ovary. The grasses of this 

 genus are coarse, with large spikelets, some- 

 what drooping generally when ripe." 



Flint remarks, " Not one of the brome 

 grasses is worthy of a moment's attention as 

 a cultivated agricultural grass, and the cleaner 

 the farmer keeps his fields of them the bet- 

 ter." 



On rich land the brome grasses, including 

 the common cheat, make a nice winter past- 

 ure. But this pasture is bought at too dear a 

 rate by the small grain grower, as the seeds 

 of this family ripen at the same time with 

 wheat, and diminish the value of the grain. 

 Barley or rye on rich land will yield more 

 winter pasture than the species of this family 

 called rescue grass, and are not liable to the 

 same objections. If a farmer desires an an- 

 nual winter grass pasture, he should sow 

 Italian rye-grass, of which more will be said 

 hereafter. 



BERMUDA GRASS CYNODON DACTOLON. 



Although this has been introduced from 

 the West Indies, it has been so thoroughly 

 domesticated in parts of the South that it may 

 be classed among native grasses. 



It is said to be the celebrated Daub 

 sacred grass of India. At the South, gener- 

 ally, it has received cursing rather than 

 blessings, especially by exclusive cotton 

 planters. 



Not having had any extended personal ex- 

 perience of this grass, yet having formed, 

 from long observation, a high opinion of its 

 value, instead of giving my own estimate of 

 it, I have thought it best to lay before the 

 readers of this manual the opinions of gentle- 

 men who, by long familiarity with it, are 

 well qualified to pronounce in regard to its 

 merits. Accordingly, extracts from letters 

 are submitted from Colonel A. J. Lane, a 

 successful cotton planter, formerly of Han- 

 cock County, Ga., now of Macon, Colonel 



T. C. Howard, Seoretary of the Georgia 

 Department of Agriculture, Dr. St. Julien 

 Ravenel, of Charleston. It would have been 

 gratifying to have given these letters in full, 

 but t his would have too far enlarged this little 

 manual. 



The points presented to these gentlemen 

 were the following: 



What is the best method of destroying 

 Bermuda grass, and how many seasons does 

 it require? 



What is its manurial value? 



What is its value for grazing and for how 

 much of the year ? 



What is its value as a hay grass? 



Colonel Lane says: "Upon our ordinary 

 upland I have found no difficulty in destroy- 

 ing it, by close cultivation in cotton for two 

 years. It requires a few extra plough ings to 

 get the sod thoroughly broken to pieces. The 

 breaking should be done with a small plough 

 first, and a harrow run over it once or twice. 

 All of this in winter or early spring. Take 

 advantage of the dry hot months of summer 

 to have the grass that may be found alive, 

 ploughed and hoed, and exposed as much as 

 possible to the sun. With the ordinary sea- 

 sons, so much of the grass will be killed the 

 first year, that but little interference with the 

 next crop need be apprehended. Pea vines, 

 or any crop that will thoroughly shade the 

 land, will kill it. When not pastured, broom 

 sedge or briars soon destroy it. Upon low 

 lands, where there is much moisture, its de- 

 struction is impracticable. 



I think it very doubtful whether there is 

 an acre of land in the South thoroughly set 

 in Bermuda grass, (if the proper use was 

 made of it,) that is not worth more than any 

 other crop that can be grown on it. If I am 

 right in this broad opinion our effort should 

 be not to kill it, but to propagate it. I am 

 myself planting it in every year upon such 

 land as does not pay for cultivation, and how 

 much such land is there throughout the 

 South. 



I cannot better illustrate the grazing value 

 of Bermuda grass, than by an instance in my 

 own experience. Nearly thirty years ago I 

 bought an old plantation, near my place in 

 Hancock County. It was bought low on 

 account of its being infested in places wi'th 

 Bermuda grass. I permitted a man to use 

 thirty acres of it which were fully set in Ber- 

 muda grass. He had at the time, a cow and 

 calf, sow and pigs, and a brood mare. He 

 cultivated a little crop of corn, but never 

 enough to feed his family. His stock lived 

 upon this thirty acres of Bermuda grass, 

 except for a short time during the winter, 

 when they had access to other parts of the 

 plantation. He remained upon this place for 

 five or six years. At the end of that time, 

 he had twenty-five head of cattle, seventy- 

 five hogs, and five horses. I offered him for 



