BUBMUDAGBASS 335 



blind to their own interests. Many men are weal- 

 ing out their lives in poverty, trying to grow fruit 

 on land poorly adapted to fruit-growing, but emi- 

 nently adapted to Bermuda -grass. 



"Louisiana. — For winter and early spring, Texas 

 blue -grass and the clovers seem to fulfil all the 

 requirements, followed in summer by Bermuda- 

 and crab -grass, the two best grasses we have. It 

 was impossible during the wet summer to restrict 

 the last two to the plots allotted to them, but to- 

 gether, they covered the whole area of the (grass) 

 garden, yielding several cuttings of hay for our 

 work animals. 



"Mississippi. — This grass is the most valuable 

 species we have in the South, and is too well 

 known to need any description. It succeeds best 

 on rich bottom lands and on the black prairie soil, 

 where it will yield two cuttings in a season, mak- 

 ing two to four tons of hay per acre. This hay is 

 of the very best quality, being especially valuable 

 for horses and mules." 



J. S. Newman, in Bulletin No. 76, of the South 

 Carolina Station, says of the plant: "This most 

 valuable acquisition to our list of pasture grasses 

 seems to have come from India, where it is called 

 'Dhab.' 



"Until its great value as a pasture grass and, 

 on moist, fertile soils, as a hay producer, became 

 known, it was regarded as a pest by the cotton 



