Forage Plants at the South. 



25 



The supply of forage for this live stock has 

 hereto fore been brought by rail from the West. 

 On account of the cost of freights, the Western 

 farmer cannot lay down hay in our cities at 

 less than present prices. There is, therefore, 

 no reasonable expectation that the price of 

 hay will materially diminish. At the pre- 

 sent prices, to one living near a railroad or a 

 market, the profits are enormous. 



Let us take a case. Lucerne will grow 

 anywhere in the South where the land is not 

 too sandy, is dry, and is made very rich. 

 Five tons of lucerne hay to the acre is not 

 an unreasonable estimate, but we will say 

 four tons. This at $30 per ton, is $120 per 

 acre. 



Now suppose a man buys one hundred acres 

 of land it may be old broom-sedge with a 

 good clay foundation, near a good hay mar- 

 ketat $10 per acre, $1,000. Suppose that 

 it costs him $40 per acre to plough, harrow, 

 roll, seed, and manure this land. His invest- 

 ment will have been $5,000. At four tons 

 per acre, worth $30 per ton, his crop will 

 bring him $12,000; that is to say, $12,000 

 grass is obtained from an investment of $5,000. 

 There is nothing speculative or theoretic in 

 these figures. Every one who knows any- 

 thing about it, knows that four tons to the 

 acre is a small yield for lucerne. If there be 

 an error, it is in the under-estimate. Any 

 one who reads the prices-current of our news- 

 papers also knows that the price quoted 

 above is correct. It should be borne in mind 

 that the $5,000 investment is only for the 

 first ^ year. After that the $12,000 will be 

 obtained with only the cost of a triennial top- 

 dressing and the cutting and saving the crop, 

 which with improved implements is less than 

 $2 per ton. What cotton or rice planter ap- 

 proximates these results ? 



But it is said, perhaps, with a sneer, " We 

 are poor ? None of us have $5,000 to invest in 

 one hundred acres of grass." Yes, you have, 

 if you are a cotton planter to any extent. Sell 

 a dozen of your mules, that have been annu- 

 ally eating their heads off since the war the 

 Southern mule being like a cat with nine 

 lives. Sell the corn and fodder that would 

 feed them for a year, or save the money that 

 would buy it. Estimate the annual cost of 

 the twelve hands which would be necessary to 

 work the twelve mules, and if you have the 

 land already, you will have saved money 

 enough for the one hundred acres of lucerne. 



One hundred acres has been selected as a 

 definite figure. Of course the amount of land 

 can be diminished according to the ability of 

 the party concerned. 



In this calculation lucerne has been selected, 

 as four tons per acre is an under-estimate. 

 Both clover and Timothy have yielded that 

 amount under high culture. 



It is not at all the design of the writer to 

 propose grass of any kind as a substitute for 



cotton, which would be preposterous. But it 

 is his purpose to urge the diminution of the 

 area planted in cotton, to impress the neces- 

 sity of a diversification of our products, and 

 the wisdom of getting the benefit to ourselves 

 of these high prices for hay while they last, 

 which must be for a number of years. We 

 want a cotton crop, a wool crop, a butter and 

 cheese crop, a grain crop, and a hay crop. 

 We want all of these to a greater or less ex- 

 tent, according to circumstances, on a single 

 plantation. This is, of course, impossible with 

 what we call a full crop of cotton, which re- 

 quires all hands all the year. But it is pos- 

 sible where cotton is as it should be, one 

 constituent of a four or five years' rotation. 



IMPROVED IMPLEMENTS FOR SAVING HAY. 



When land has stumps in it, or rocks upon 

 the surface, these improved implements can- 

 not be used. In such cases the grass must 

 be cut with a scythe. Where it is possible 

 without too great expense, these obstructions 

 should be removed, as the cost of saving a 

 crop of hay is greatly reduced by the use of 

 these implements. These implements are the 

 horse-mower, tedder, rake, and hay-lifter, and 

 loader. With their aid the grass is not touched 

 by hand, either in cutting, curing, or housing. 

 The saving of human labor is more than one- 

 half. The cost is diminished more than one- 

 half. The rapidity with which the work is 

 done enables us to command the weather. At 

 the South the saving of human labor is a 

 great object, as it is very difficult to obtain at 

 harvest time. Any one having ten acres of 

 meadow should provide himself with these 

 implements. The saving annually will be a 

 large interest on his money. This is true 

 where skillful mowers can be obtained. At 

 the South they are very rare. It is seldom 

 that a good cradler is a good mower, as the 

 movement is entirely different. 



The cost of a light two-horse mowing ma- 

 chine is from $100 to $120; a hay-tedder, 

 $80 : sulky horse-rake, $35 ; say in all, $250. 

 If we allow fifteen per cent, for interest and 

 repair, this would amount to $37 50. Much 

 more than this sum would be saved annually 

 on saving the hay crop of ten acres of meadow. 



RAISING GRASS SEED FOR SALE. 



The amount of money spent for Northern 

 grass seeds at the South is very large. Last 

 year two seedsmen in Atlanta sold during the 

 season from $75 to $100 worth of clover and 

 grass seeds daily. In the small village of 

 Cartersville $5,000 was expended in one sea- 

 son for clover seed alone. The consumption 

 is increasing every year. There is no good 

 reason why we should not raise our own grass 

 seeds and supply our own dealers. At pre- 

 sent prices the profits would be large. But 

 little labor and expense attends the process. 

 As an illustration, the writer saved this year 



