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cut every four or five weeks during the season. This quickness of growth 

 makes it stand in the first rank as a soiling grass. For dairymen living 

 near a city it is of especial value as the green food produces a rich flow 

 of milk at a very small cost. One and a half to two bushels of seed, 

 weighing 20 pounds to the bushel, is about the proper quantity to sow on 

 an acre of land. Prepare the land and sow in the same manner as or- 

 chard grass. Tt is, however, better when sown in the fall, about the first 

 of October. It may be considered a very valuable grass for Tennessee 

 and indeed for the south generally. It has been fully tested in Georgia 

 and in Tennessee, and it has in every instance given satisfactory results. 



It gives a fine color to the butter of the milch cows fed on it, and 

 they eat it with great relish. It withstands the hottest suns of summer as 

 well as the frosts of the severest winter. It must be sown alone, as it 

 will quickly choke and destroy clover or other grasses. Its yield per 

 acre, according to received authority, is something immense. Mr. Dick- 

 ens, of England, sowed it on a stiff, clay soil, well-manured, cut it ten 

 times during one year; the first time, ten inches, in March; April 13th, 

 again, and May 4th, a third time; May 25th, a fourth time; June 14th, 

 again; July 22nd, a sixth time, with ripe seed and three loads of hay to the 

 acre. Immediately after each cutting it was manured with liquid manure, 

 the produce of each crop increasing with the temperature of the atmos- 

 phere, from three-quarters of a load, the first cutting, to three loads the 

 last. He discontinued manuring now, thinking its growth would be ter- 

 minated in bearing seed, but he afterwards cut four crops from it. On 

 the 26th of January following, it measured sixteen inches in height. The 

 last cutting was October 30th, and on the 8th of April a crop twenty-two 

 inches high was cut from it. "I was desirous to know the exact amount 

 taken per acre for the year, and it amounted, on a careful measuring and 

 'weighing of green hay, thirteen tons and eighteen hundred and twenty- 

 seven pounds per acre." (Coleman's European Agriculture.) 



It presents a most charming view, with its broad, dark green foliage, 

 and especially in a dry year, when vegetation is parched up all around, it 

 does not show any signs of losing its fresh, living, luxuriant growth. 

 Although of short life, a meadow of this grass may be made perennial by 

 scattering fresh seed over the ground every second year and scratching 

 it with a harrow having sharp teeth. Its unusual ability to withstand the 

 vicissitudes of heat and cold makes it a desirable grass for any thirsty 

 soil, as well as for moist soils. It might possibly be a valuable addition 

 to the soils of the western portions of our state. At least it is worthy 

 of a trial. 



Mr. Gould thinks the valuable qualities of this grass may be summed 

 up as follows: "Its habit of coming early to maturity. Its rapid repro- 

 duction after cutting. Its wonderful adaptation to all domestic animals, 

 which is shown by the extreme partiality they manifest for it, either alone 

 or when mixed with other grasses; whether when used as green food for 

 soiling, as hay, or as pasturage, in which latter state its stems are never 

 allowed to ripen and wither like other grasses. Its beneficial influence on 

 the dairy, not only augmenting the flow of milk, but improving the flavor 

 of the cheese and butter, Its uncommon hardiness and capacity to with- 

 stand for vicissitudes of both wetness and dryness." 



