170 THE GRASSES OF TENNESSEE. 



He does all the work and incurs all the expense necessary 

 to make the richest pastures and then wastes it all by bad 

 and thoughtless management. But there are some farmers 

 in almost every county in Tennessee, who well understand 

 the Kentucky system. Those who intend to sow grass may 

 learn the system from them. What a scene of comfort, 

 beauty, luxury and wealth, will this whole Middle Tennes- 

 see present, when it shall be covered with the richest Blue 

 Grass ! Such will be the future of this fine country. 77 



"Much has been published lately about immigation. But 

 in justice to our own Tennesseeans, who own this valuable 

 soil, I will say that we can ourselves sow all our valuable 

 hills with Blue Grass, without the aid of labor from abroad. 

 "We do not need many laborers to make grass. It will al- 

 ways pay a good profit. Every acre will pay its taxes and 

 a good profit besides. We now till too much land. We 

 ought to till less and make more grass. Let not an acre be 

 idle. There is our true interest. We need grass more 

 than voters or laborers. Cotton, tobacco, rice, hemp and 

 sugar need laborers, but grass does not. If we sow our 

 lands in grass we can do without so much labor. The in- 

 disposition of farmers to take advantage of experience, is 

 shown in the following case, which is in point : 77 



"I know a rocky lot of about six acres which I myself 

 sowed in 1835. During last year (1870), it afforded a 

 profit to the present owner of full ten dollars per acre. The 

 owner has no grass on the balance of his land, and does not 

 intend to have any. He has lived, during his whole life, in 

 sight of rich pastures of Blue Grass, and knows that his 

 whole tract will produce as good grass as those pastures. 

 Yet he will not sow grass. The reader will say that this 

 farmer, with his six rocky acres of Blue Grass, is a singular 

 man. But he is not very, singular. Because hundreds of 

 farmers here know just as well the value of Blue Grass 

 as he does, and yet they do not sow it. Doubtless many 

 readers know it as well, and yet do not sow. They know, 



