Cultivation of the Grasses and 



so formidable as those which are incident to 

 cotton and wheat. One of these difficulties, 

 the heat of the summer's sun, has already 

 been noticed, and also the mode of removing 

 it. In this connection there is an additional 

 consideration. We have really comparatively 

 little need of artificial summer pastures. 

 Broomsedge makes excellent spring pastures, 

 and the crab-grass in the stubble gives a sum- 

 mer pasture which cannot be surpassed. This 

 is a point of superiority of the South over the 

 North. The Northern farmer has nothing to 

 correspond with our crab-grass. Bis stock are 

 eating without appetite or relish in August 

 and September the old grass of the spring, 

 while our stock are luxuriating on the fresh 

 bite of the newly-sprung crab-grass. 



We are fortunately exempt in our pastures 

 and meadows to a great degree from perennial 

 weeds. The two most troublesome are the 

 dock and the thorn-apple, or ''tread soft," as 

 it is called in the vernacular. The former 

 must be dug up by the roots, the latter may 

 be killed in either of two ways ; it will be de- 

 stroyed by repeated mowing, or if sheep are 

 turned into the pasture when the berries are 

 green they will eat them with avidity. In 

 two seasons the plant will die when thus 

 treated. But if either sheep or cattle are 

 turned into the meadow or pasture when the 

 seeds of this pest are ripe, they will eat them 

 and scatter them over the farm. The cow- 

 itch and the China briar are easily destroyed 

 by cutting with a scythe as often during the 

 season as the leaves put out. The leaves are 

 the lungs of plants, and if they cannot breathe 

 they die. Blackberries and sassafras may be 

 destroyed in the same way, that is, by repeated 

 cutting. This work, however, requires the 

 attention of the owner. If a negro is sent to 

 cut down either briar or sassafras, and if he 

 leaves only a leaf or shrub on the stock he 

 might as well not have cut it at all. But it is 

 best to destroy these troublesome plants before 

 grass is sown. For this purpose a flock of 

 sheep is very effective. In a single season, if 

 kept hungry in a short pasture, they will ex- 

 terminate both briars and sassafras, if they 

 have been previously cut down in the spring 

 The sheep will render a second cutting un- 

 necessary. 



But the greatest enemy to permanent mead- 

 ows or pastures of the cultivated grasses is 

 broomsedge. Ordinarily before a meadow or 

 pasture is five or six years old, it is overrun 

 with this grass ; and the richer the land the 

 ranker is its growth. It is usually considered 

 to be a sign of poverty of soil, but this is be- 

 cause fields at the South are usually turned 

 pastures only when they have become ex- 

 hausted of the food of valuable crops. It 

 will grow better on the richest bottom than 

 on poor upland. 



A precaution against broomsedge is very 

 heavy seeding of the grasses which we desire 



to occupy the soil. When grass seed is sown 

 it should be thick enough for the plants to oc- 

 cupy the whole ground at once. Wherever 

 there is the smallest vacant place broomsedge 

 will appear. When it has made its appear- 

 ance if a shovelful of wet or recent manure, 

 or of rotted manure in a powdered state, is 

 thrown upon a tuft of it it will die, and the 

 good grass is benefitted. It will be observed 

 that this pest never grows about a place in 

 which stock have been kept or penned. A 

 meadow or pasture well manured with stable 

 or barn yard manure will not be troubled 

 with broomsedge for a number of years It 

 is to be presumed that Peruvian guano, or 

 ammonia applied in any form will have the 

 same effect with barn-yard manure. Potash, 

 in the form of ashes, is equally destructive to 

 broomsedge, and beneficial to the valuable 

 grasses. The careful observer will have 

 noticed that in the thickest set old broom- 

 sedge field it never grows up to a burned 

 stump, not approaching nearer than a circle 

 of three or four feet. If a flock of sheep are 

 closely penned, using a moveable fence, for 

 ten or twelve nights, on places in a valuable 

 meadow, on which broomsedge has appeared, 

 it will be effectually killed without injury to 

 the good grasses. The treading and the ma- 

 nure combine to effect this result. The pres- 

 ence of broomsedge indicates the absence or 

 deficiency of ammoniacal manures. 



In this connection, and as an adjunct of 

 grass farming at the South, it may be well to 

 describe a portable fence, in use by the writer, 

 originated by him, but not patented. 



Make a panel of fence eight or ten feet 

 long, of five planks, six inches wide, and 

 three-quarters to one inch high, nailed to 

 three uprights, two by three inches, twenty- 

 five and one-half feet long. The uprights 

 should be sharpened at the lower end, a two 

 inch auger hole should be bored diagonally, 

 and in these, stakes should be inserted. These 

 stakes may be of saplings of any kind, six 

 feet long, sharpened at the lower end, and 

 with a shoulder at the upper end, so that the 

 stakes will project nearly one foot above the 

 plank. The fence will stand at an angle of 

 about forty-five degrees to the ground. If the 

 fence is to stand for a length of time, it would 

 be well to bore a three-quarter auger hole 

 through the stakes above the planks and in- 

 sert a wooden pin. The corner panels can 

 be made to fit by shortening the planks from 

 the top to the bottom. With a flock of sheep 

 and a movable fence, the farmer can be quite 

 independent of broomsedges in his meadows. 

 But it may be said that it may pay to 

 manure meadows or hay, but not manure 

 pastures. Certainly not summer pastures. 

 The natural grasses, broomsedge among them, 

 answer very well for that purpose. But it 

 will pay, and pay handsomely, to manure 

 winter pastures, because they are in effect 



