18 THE GRASSES 



CHAPTER II. 



ENGLISH PRODUCTIONS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF TEN- 

 NESSEE COMPARATIVE VALUE OF OTHER CROPS WITH 

 GRASS CAUSE OF LOW PRICE OF LANDS. 



Cotton has been for so many generations recognized as 

 the king of all agricultural products, that the people of 

 Tennessee were long disposed to accept his prerogative 

 without questioning, but when the subject is fully investi- 

 gated, grass takes precedence. The cotton crop of the Uni- 

 ted States as a general thing reaches about 4,000,000 bags, 

 worth about on an average $250,000,000, while the aggre- 

 gate of the hay receipts annually reach the enormous sum 

 of $300,000,000, and the value of pasture will fully equal 

 this amount, though its results are not so immediately 

 apparent, as its sales are combined with those of cattle, 

 sheep and hogs. Before the war, the lands of Tennessee 

 had a certain fixed or rising value. A great depreciation 

 of prices has taken place. But this falling in price does 

 not apply to those well arranged stock farms, scattered here 

 and there, at long intervals through the State. They are 

 still in demand at prices far in advance of those lands that 

 have been, and are still being devoted to cotton and other 

 exhaustive crops. 



The English farmer is able to take long leases of farms 

 from the rich landholder, at from $20 to $50 per an- 

 nual rent. How does he pay this extravagant rent and 

 support his family ? He could not do it in any other 

 manner than by improving, manuring and increasing the 

 meadows with which they are constantly set. A Tennesseean 

 will manure his garden, and sometimes his corn land, but 

 whoever thinks of spreading manure on his meadows. Yet 

 the Englishman will spend large sums of money, and de- 



