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This species is so familiar to every Southern farmer that it would 

 seern to be superfluous to notice it. But as little as it may appear, 

 it is one of our most valuable indigenous grasses. 



Crab grass is an annual, and so full of seed is it that it is never 

 necessary to sow it. It is never cultivated alone, which could be 

 easily done by sowing the seed on a smooth surface about the first 

 of June. When the cultivation of a piece of ground ceases, it at 

 once takes possession, and soon furnishes a ftne pasture. It grows 

 not only in the cultivated fields, but in old pastures, yards and 

 woods. 



It is a fine pasture grass, although it has but few base leaves, and 

 forms no sward, yet it sends .out numerous stems, branching freely 

 at the base. It serves a most useful purpose in stock husbandry. 

 It fills all our cornfields, and many persons pull it out for hay. It 

 makes a sweet food, and horses are exceedingly fond of it, leaving 

 the best hay to eat it. Should it be desired to secure a good crop 

 of it, do riot pasture the wheat or oat stubble, except with hogs, 

 until the crab grass gets a good start, then take off' the hogs and 

 allow it to get into bloom, and if the land is good, there wilt be a 

 paying quantity to save. f It should be sedulously guarded from 



MILLET. (Panicum Miliaceum.) 



There are a great many varieties of this important grass, and 

 almost every year adds to the list of them. The preference for 

 any variety is arbitrary, yet there are many advantages- belonging 

 to all. But so far as the planter is concerned, one description serves 

 for all, as the mode of culture is the same, and the only difference 

 is in the botanic characteristics. 



The first millet cultivated in this State was the kind commonly 

 called Tennessee millet. In a few years the Hungarian grass, or 

 millet, became popular. It does not yield so much hay, 'but it is 

 eaten with more avidity by.stock. The Missouri, which is only a 

 modification of the Tennessee ; next became the favorite, and then 

 the German millet came and superseded all others. The manner 

 of its introduction was in this wise : 



Two Germans came to Tennessee in 1861. One of them brought 

 a little sack of millet seed, about a quart, which he kept in his 

 trunk during the war. At the close of the war he took it out one 



