I 



Forage Plants at the South. 





But this increase is not equal to the cost of 

 buying commercial fertilizers. No ordinary 

 application of these fertilizers will communi- 

 cate to the soil an equal degree of fertility 

 with that which is communicated by the in- 

 version of a Bermuda grass sod. The fer- 

 tility created in the latter case will be felt for 

 several years in the former it is ephem- 

 eral. 



The following rotation on Bermuda grass 

 land has been adopted by some cotton plant- 

 ers with excellent results. The first year cot- 

 ton, the second, corn, the third, oats or wheat, 

 sowed after corn. The grass which has been 

 scotched, not killed, begins to run as soon as 

 the small grain is cut, and if grazed for two 

 or three years there will be a thick sward of 

 Bermuda on which the same rotation may be 

 repeated. Under such a rotation the soil, 

 now the only capital of the Southern farmer, 

 would rapidly improve. If he will take the 

 pains to calculate the value of this interme- 

 diate grazing, he will find that it will be, in 

 either horses, mules, colts, cattle or sheep, an 

 enormous per centage on the sum for which 

 he would gladly sell his land. 



If, when the soil is not too sandy, Bermuda 

 grass is torn up by the plough or coulter, 

 blue grass and white clover seed are sowed, 

 after harrowing and previous to rolling, the 

 perfection of a pasture, capable of sustaining 

 the best live stock, whether horses, mules, 

 colts, cattle, sheep, or hogs, will be produced, 

 winter and summer. There is nothing equal 

 to it at the North, or in Europe. As the Ber- 

 muda dies down in autumn, the blue grass 

 and white clover then appear, the reverse re- 

 curring in the heat of summer. 



More than thirty years ago the writer, 

 walking with a gentleman of far-reaching 

 mind, and observing the gullied and exco- 

 riated condition of the soil near Mllledgeville, 

 enquired, ''What is to restore its fertility to 

 the worn out portion of Georgia?" The an- 

 swer was promptly given. "Sheep and Ber- 

 muda grass " There was profound wisdom 

 in the reply. A large portion of old Georgia 

 must become a sheep walk before it can be 

 restored to fertility, and the land owners be- 

 come independent of the negro. 



Possibly some persons might think it a 

 degradation of even a worn out cotton field 

 to convert it into a sheep walk. It would, 

 indeed, be degrading it. to the level of an 

 English farm, worth from three to four hun- 

 dred dollars an acre. It would be well for us 

 if we suffered this degradation. Besides all 

 the land in clover and meadow, of which 

 there is a vast amount, forty-eight per cent of 

 the whole of the valuable soil of England is 

 in permanent pasture. 



So much space has been given in this 

 manual to Bermuda grass, on account of the 

 prejudices against it, its great value, and the 

 facts that while the artificial grasses are ex- 



2 



pensive, it is within asy reach of the poorest 

 farmer. 



It would be improper to close these re- 

 marks upon the natural resources of the South 

 in the way of native forage plants and grasses 

 without reference to the value of our com- 

 mon cane as a winter food for mules and cattle. 

 Our canebrakes should be preserved with the 

 greatest care. Where they have been des- 

 troyed they may be renewed by inclosing and 

 keeping hogs and fire away from them. If 

 cattle are turned in the fall fat into a cane- 

 brake they will not lose flesh, but improve 

 until grass comes again. With a judicious 

 management of cane in those portions of the 

 South in which it grows, vast herds of cattle 

 might be kept at trifling expense. As (he 

 cane is a swamp growth, cattle could be driv- 

 en into the cane pasture in the morning and 

 driven out and penned at night on poor up- 

 land, thereby making it rich without damag- 

 ing the cane ground. 



Without reference to the artificial or cul- 

 tivated grasses, we have the following natur- 

 al reliances for live stock food during all sea- 

 sons of the year : Terrell grass and cane for 

 winter pasture ; Gama, crab and crow-foot 

 grasses for hay , Bermuda, the sedge, and 

 other common grasses, including crab-grass 

 and crow-foot, for spring, summer and fall 

 grazing. 



With these reliances alone, sheep and cat- 

 tle can be raised at the South to decided pro- 

 fit. They will enable the poor man to begin 

 stock raising, who cannot afford at once to 

 make his lands rich, or to buy grass seeds, 

 which are expensive. As his means improve 

 he may add such of the artificial grasses as 

 may be adapted to his particular locality. 



In large portioi s of the South there are 

 creek and river bottom lands which are now 

 utterly useless. They are too wet for relia- 

 ble cultivation with the plow, and are grown 

 up into impenetrable thickets of briars, vines 

 and bushes. If such land is grubbed in Au- 

 gust, and the timber where it is too thick is 

 thinned out, and if the next season hungry 

 cattle, sheep and goats are kept upon it, they 

 will destroy the sprouts, and in a short time 

 the natural winter grasses will form an ex- 

 cellent winter pasture. These grasses will 

 spring up spontaneously. Thus with a little 

 labor; at a season of comparative leisure, a 

 piece of profitless property may be made 

 profitable in a double sense one of fat- 

 tening stock in winter at no other cost than 

 the interest on the land, and the other of mak- 

 ing that stock, by penning at night, an im- 

 prover of land which requires improvement. 



Time sometimes misleads us. He clothes 

 error with gray hairs and makes him venera- 

 ble. There are many persons who prefer an 

 old error to a new truth. While long exist- 

 ing opinion should be approached with cau- 

 tion, it should be, if the expression may be 



