26 



Cultivation of the Grasses and Forage Plants at the South. 



the seed from a little more than an acre of 

 meadow-oat grass. The yield was six bushels. 

 This at five dollars per bushel, the usual price, 

 would amount to thirty dollars. The grass 

 was cut with a cradle and bound, and was 

 threshed with a flail. The hay was saved, as 

 the seed of this grass ripens while the stalk 

 is green. Southern farmers should stop this 

 leak from the agricultural income of the 

 South. Besides the direct money saving, it 

 would be best to use acclimated grass seeds. 



WOODS PASTURES. 



Most of our woodland is, to a certain 

 extent, dead capital. This is not the case 

 where woodland rises sufficiently in value to 

 pay a fair interest on the investment, or so 

 far as necessary fence-rails and fuel are con- 

 cerned. In some of the older portions of the 

 South there is not sufficient timber for the 

 wants of the farm ; but there are vast tracts 

 of timber land in other portions which do not 

 appreciate perceptibly in value, and which 

 are comparatively useless. Woojls pastures 

 which correspond to the English parks, would 

 in such localities be found very profitable. 

 The timber should be thinned out, leaving the 

 trees thirty to fifty feet distant from each other. 

 Crooked and worthless timber should be cut, 

 leaving rail and mast-bearing trees. Every- 

 thing that is cut down should be piled and 

 burned in as small heaps as possible, to allow 

 the ashes to be more readily scattered. There 

 is very little of our upland which is rich 

 enough to bring good grass without assistance. 

 The scattered ashes will stimulate the young 

 grass. We have vast quantities of bottom 

 land rich enough to bring good grass, but 

 these are suitable only for summer pastures. 

 They would be poached and damaged by the 

 feet of cattle in the winter. We labor under 

 no deficiency of summer pastures it is win- 

 ter pasture that we most need. For this we 

 must depend on our upland, unless during a 

 very dry season on bottom land. 



After the ground is prepared by cutting 

 down, burning and scattering the ashes, it 

 should be harrowed, so as to simply loosen 

 the surface. If ploughed, the plough will 

 turn up tussocks and lumps, and if these are 

 turned back again on the grass seed after it is 

 sown, they will fail to vegetate. If sown after 

 the ground is loosened, before a rain or during 

 a drizzle, no covering is necessary. If in a dry 

 time a light brush is sufficient. "Or if the pas- 

 ture be small, and the stock of cattle or sheep 

 be large, penning them and driving them about 

 for a few days will pack the seed into the 

 ground without inverting any of the sods or 

 tussocks. The grass seeds recommended for 

 winter pastures would be sown on this land, 

 and treated as prescribed for them. 



Woods pastures or parks thus formed will 



convert dead into living capital. We now 

 pay taxes on our woodland ; it should pay us 

 something in return. A woods pasture is a 

 great relief to the corn-crib in raising hogs. 

 Trees trampled around and thinned rarely 

 fail in bearing mast. This, in connection with 

 the grass, will nearly fatten a large amount of 

 pork. 



They are also a great saving in the way of 

 shelter. While it is a cruelty "to confine stock 

 in a bare lot without shelter, in a woods pas- 

 ture in our climate they really do not need 

 shelter. This is especially the case where 

 they can have access to a south hillside. On 

 such spots it is always well to leave a thicket 

 for shelter. 



Scarcely any improvement would add more 

 to the value of our landed estate than woods 

 pastures or parks. Nothing would add more 

 to its beauty. The parks of England are one 

 of its chief ornaments an ornament which is 

 also an utility. Fine oaks, green grass, run- 

 ning water, and blatant sheep or lowing 

 cattle, form a landscape which the painter 

 attempts in vain adequately to depict. There 

 is no reason why a large portion of the neg- 

 lected woodland of the South may not be 

 made to add to our weaith, while it fills the 

 eye with scenes of beauty. 



NUTRITIVE VALUE OF THE GRASSES. 



The following tables will be read with in- 

 terest. They were prepared by Prof. Way, 

 Chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society 

 of England. Wherever the examination of 

 these tables is not instructive, referring as 

 they do to a number of grasses not in use 

 among us, they will at all events gratify 

 commendable curiosity. In these tables, a 

 distinction is made to which we are not 

 accustomed. The grasses are all called natu- 

 ral those which we term " forage plants," 

 are called artificial grasses, as clover, etc. 



These tables will be readily understood by 

 the unscientific reader, if he will remember, 

 that Albuminous matters are those which 

 produce flesh, that fatty matters are the 

 fat forming principles, that the heat produc- 

 ing principles, include all others besides 

 those which form flesh, fats or woody fibre, 

 and that the ash includes all the mineral 

 matter which is left after burning, as phos- 

 phate of lime, potash, etc., all of which the 

 plant has taken from the soil. These valua- 

 ble tables deserve other explanatory com- 

 ments. But these comments would carry us 

 beyond the limits of a merely popular manual 

 for the unscientific reader. Those who are 

 disposed to pursue the subject further are 

 referred to Flint's admirable work on the 

 Grasses, published by Crosby, Nichols & 

 Lee, Boston, Mass. 



