Forage Plants at the /South. 



The heats and dry weather of the summer 

 are the drawbacks to grass culture at the 

 South. But these affect summer pastures alone. 

 They do not affect the hay crop. This is an 

 important consideration. Clover and the hay 

 grasses are cut before dry weather sets in. 

 The hay crop at the South will not be injured 

 one year in twenty by dry weather in the 

 spring. We do not know a country more fa- 

 vored in this particular. In England, while 

 the grass grows luxuriantly in the Spring, it is 

 very uncertain whether there will be enough 

 dry weather at the proper time to save the hay. 

 Hence the preparation for hay harvest in 

 England are made with a degree of care and 

 anxiety to which we are strangers. If the 

 occasional sunshine be not used to the utmost 

 advantage, the crop is lost. We, on the con- 

 trary, always have rain enough in the Spring 

 to mature the grass, and not enough rain to 

 render the hay harvest at all precarious. 



But it may be asked, when the hay is cut, 

 will not the July and August suns afterward 

 kill the grass ? There is danger of this result 

 if live stock are turned upon the meadow as 

 soon as the hay is hauled out, and the grass 

 that is left is grazed close to the ground. A 

 meadow at the South should never be grazed 

 during the summer. The grass ordinarily 

 springs rapidly after it is cut, and thus covers 

 the ground and protects the roots from the 

 intense heat of the sun. This precaution 

 should never be forgotten by those who hope 

 to raise hay successfully at the South. 



But after the Fall rains set in and cool 

 weather begins, the meadows may be mode- 

 rately grazed in dry, but never in wet, weather. 

 With some grasses this grazing may be con- 

 tinued during all the dry weather of the ^win- 

 ter, as they continue green. 



This winter grazing is the great advantage 

 of the South. It more than compensates for 

 the drought and heat of summer. It saves to 

 a considerable extent the cost of cutting and 

 curing hay, and of the construction of expen- 

 sive barns. While cattle and sheep at the 

 North are shut up in great stone barns, costing 

 thousands of dollars, for six or eight months 

 of the year, requiring costly feed and atten- 

 tion, the same animals during the same perioc 

 at the South might, on winter pastures, be 

 kept in equally good condition without any 

 other expense than their salt and the interest 

 on the land upon which they graze. This is 

 not mere theory. The writer has sold fa 

 Ayrshire cattle, fat enough to have been ap- 

 proved in Scotland, which never had tasted a 

 mouthful of food, winter or summer, save 

 that which they gathered for themselves. Tht 

 reasonable conclusion is that the Southerr 

 climate, if we consider the whole year, is wel 

 adapted to the successful cultivation of valu 

 able forage plants and grasses. 



Now as to soil. Poor land in no countrj 

 will raise rich grass. But there is a differ 



ence, other things being equal, in the natural 

 adaptation of soils to grass. Sandy soils are 

 unfavorable to it. This want of natural adap- 

 tation may, however, be compensated by extra 

 jains in preparation and manuring. Tight 

 clay soils are, at the South, best adapted to 

 rass. Wherever such a soil is either natu- 

 rally or artificially rich, grass will thrive in 

 t. Some of these soils are unsuited to any 

 other crop from their compactness, unless it 

 e oats. For instance, what are called " pipe- 

 lay lands," these will bring neither cotton nor 

 corn to advantage, but will produce excellent 

 lerdsgrass. There are thousands and tens of 

 thousands of acres of this pipe-clay land, now 

 .itterly valueless to their owners, which would 

 make fine herdsgrass meadows. 



Success in grass culture is simply a question 

 of food for the plant. It must be the food 

 which the plant requires. If a horse has ever 

 so much meat near him and nothing else, 

 tie will starve. If a dog has a hay-stack 

 within his reach and nothing else, he also 

 will starve. Plants have their likes and dis- 

 likes in the way of food as decidedly as 

 animals. Land may bring a bag of cotton to 

 the acre, and yet be poor grass land. On the 

 contrary, land may be well adapted to grass, 

 which is unsuited for cotton. Lands, in their 

 virgin state, abounding in the salts useful in 

 general agriculture almost to excess, will pro- 

 duce a great variety of crops. From this 

 virgin affluence plants have an opportunity of 

 selecting their appropriate food But when 

 these salts have been consumed or washed 

 away, when we plant a crop of any kind we 

 must put back the specialty in the way of food 

 which is required by that particular crop. 

 Therefore, if we wish to sow clover on land 

 which has been deprived of phosphate of lime 

 and potash we must replace them. If we wish 

 to sow grass, we must replace ammonia and 

 potash. Perhaps the following general rule 

 will prove an useful guide : Any land that 

 will bring good wheat will bring good clover, 

 and any land that will bring good oats, will 

 bring good grass. 



The writer has seen the various useful for- 

 age plants and grasses tried from the moun- 

 tains to the coast of Georgia. He has been 

 closely observing in regard to this important 

 interest for more than twenty years. As a 

 conclusion of this protracted observation, he 

 does not hesitate to say if ground be made 

 sufficiently rich and as well prepared, that if 

 judgment be exercised in sowing and in 

 adaptation of species to particular locality, 

 and proper subsequent management be ob- 

 served, that so far as soil and climate be 

 concerned, the South has unusual fitness for 

 successful cultivation of the valuable grasses. 



DRAWBACKS. 



The grass grown at the South will have 

 some difficulties to contend with. But none 



