18 



Cultivation of the Grasses and 



allowed, with bold caution. That which may 

 have been sound policy in one condition of 

 affairs may be very unsound in another. Our 

 fathers made nothing but cotton and corn. 

 They thought they did right. But because it 

 may have been right for them, it does not follow 

 that it is right for us. We have never availed 

 ourselves of the full natural resources of soil 

 elements and products with which God has 

 blessed us. When we have thus availed our- 

 selves, and to these natural resources have 

 added the appliances of modern agricultural 

 science, the South will have attained a pros- 

 perity which will make her a marvel among 

 the peoples of the earth. 



WINTER GRASSES. 



One of the most marked and singular ad- 

 vantages of the South, is its ability to grow 

 grasses which may be pastured in the winter. 

 It is a blessing of climate which we have not 

 yet appreciated. The raising a full supply 

 of horses, mules, cattle, sheep and hogs for 

 our own consumption, is an absolute essential 

 of skilled agriculture. For all of these, ex- 

 cept the hog, grass, either green or cured, is 

 necessary. The cost of cutting and saving 

 hay has been greatly reduced by the use of 

 improved implements. Slill it is something. 

 Besides the cost of the hay is the cost of the 

 barn to store it in, and in addition the cost 

 of feeding it out. A barn sufficiently large 

 to hold the hay for a considerable stock, is an 

 expensive affair. Nearly all of this expense 

 is saved by good winter pastures. The stock 

 upon them do their own mowing, and are 

 their own barn. Exceptional periods occur, 

 as in a heavy freeze or severe storm, when 

 some hay must be fed. By the aid of the 

 winter grasses, it is perfectly practicable to 

 raise colts, cattle and sheep, throughout a 

 large portion of the South, without other 

 cost than the interest on land and the value 

 of the salt. The first object of the farmer, 

 who designs to grow the grasses, should be 

 to sow those which are green all the winter. 

 " Roughness," as it is called, may be tempo- 

 rarily secured by sowing corn, peas, millet 

 and oats. But there is no adequate substi- 

 tute for winter grass pastures. Oats, barley 

 and rye may be grazed, but the stock must 

 be taken from them at a season when the ne- 

 cessity is most pinching, and besides they 

 must be sowed annually, which is expensive. 

 They are decidedly to be preferred to no win- 

 ter pasture, but are very inferior to perma- 

 nent grass pastures. 



MEADOW-OAT GRASS. 



This grass deserves to be placed at the head 

 of the winter grasses for the South. It has 

 the double advantage of being a good hay 

 as well as winter pasture grass. It does not 

 answer well on moist land. Kich upland is 

 the proper soil for it. On such land it will 



grow from five to seven feet tall, completely 

 hiding a man walking in it. It will grow on 

 more Randy land than most of the artificial 

 grasses. Hence it is well suited to a large por- 

 tion of the soil of the cotton belt, perhaps better 

 suited on this account than any other upland 

 grass. The yield of hay on rich land is large 

 and the quality is excellent. It matures rap- 

 idly. Seed sown in the spring will produce 

 seed in the fall. The seed is ripe when the 

 stalk is green. It shatters easily, and the 

 seed must therefore be saved in time. If it 

 be desired to save seed, it is best to cut off 

 the heads with a cradle and tie in bundles as 

 grain ; afterwards the rest can be mowed for 

 hay. This is a great advantage of being able 

 to save hay and seed from the same crop. Of 

 a wet season it may be necessary to cut a sec- 

 ond crop. After it is cut no stock should be 

 allowed to graze it, during the summer 

 and fall. The rowen or aftermath, or after- 

 growth, all of these named being used, should 

 remain until after Christmas, then the stock 

 may be turned upon it in dry weather and 

 remain during the months of January and 

 February. If it be not designed to make 

 hay, they may be continued on it until the 

 other grasses spring. The amount of green 

 food yielded by this grass during the winter 

 is greater than that of any other grass. On 

 rich land at Christmas, the ends of the leaves 

 will have turned yellow, but there will be 

 found an astonishing mass of green grass be- 

 neath, which live stock eat with avidity; this, 

 according to Flint, is the ray grass of France. 

 The seed is very light and chaffy. It is 

 proper to sow two bushels to the acre. It is 

 a tussock, or bunch grass, not spreading from 

 the roots, hence the necessity of heavy seed- 

 ing. The amount of seed required makes the 

 beginning expensive, but if sowed by itself, 

 an acre will give a large amount of seed, and 

 subsequent purchases become unnecessary. 



In this connection it will not be amiss to 

 make some remarks on winter pastures gene- 

 rally. 



They must not be pastured when the ground 

 is wet ; at such times all stock must be re- 

 moved from them. They must not at any 

 time be grazed too closely. Everybody knows 

 how to treat a rye or barley lot. It is well 

 known that if stock bite into tho crown 

 of the plant it will be killed. Winter 

 grass pastures must be treated in the same 

 way with grain paeture. The temptation to 

 transgress in this particular is very great. 

 When all other vegetable matter is dead, live 

 stock become almost crazy for green food, 

 and they are suffered by the sympathizing 

 owner to remain while a particle of green 

 food is visible. As a consequence of this 

 practice persisted in, the grass is killed. It 

 will be better to buy fodder, if it be necessa- 

 ry, rather than allow a practice so ruinous to 

 the farmer. 



