477 



Upon the adoption or rejection of this proverb depends the prosperity 

 and success or downfall and decay of the important interests of our beau- 

 tiful State. 



The fact that so small a portion of the arable lands of our State are de- 

 voted to the cultivation of the grasses, is a lamentable one ; especially so, 

 as grass is the most important factor in the production of all flesh, which 

 constitutes about thirty per cent, of the human food of the entire world. 

 Again, the importance of grass becomes a more potent factor in solving 

 the great problem that is now awakening the best minds in existence, viz., 

 the preservation of the soil, the foundation of all prosperity, either indi- 

 vidual, State or national. 



The estimated value of the grass crop of the United States, for pasturage 

 and hay together, is about $1,000,000,000, at the present time. Of this 

 amount Tennessee is entitled to at least one-thirtieth, or thirty-three 

 millions. Deprive us of this amount of property, and issue the decree 

 that there should never be another acre within the limits of our State 

 devoted to the cultivation of grass, and wnere would we be in ten years 

 from to-day? occupying a howling wilderness of burned, scarred, gullied, 

 worthless soil; living in huts in squallid ignorance and poverty, the des 

 pised of all this great sisterhood of States. 



When we realize the great importance that the cultivation of the grasses 

 bears to the successful prosecution of all the branches of rural husbandry, 

 it becomes a cause of sincere regret that the intelligence oi our agricultu- 

 ral classes has so seriously neglected to place this important element where 

 it properly belong, and enable it to stand first in value in all future re- 

 ports of the statistics of our State. 



I will now proceed to name some of the grasses, together with their 

 characteristics, that are the most extensively adapted to and grown in 

 Tennessee : 



First on the list, in consequence of its being more extensively cultivated 

 and generally known, is blue grass, (poa pratensis.} This grass was intro- 

 duced into this country by the early settlers of Virginia and the Carolinas, 

 and has since been so extensively propagated from the lakes to the gulf as 

 to deserve the title of the grass of America. To describe its specific char- 

 acters is not pertinent to this occasion, and could only interest the student 

 of botany. This is an early grass that will flourish almost anywhere 

 when properly treated and cared for. It, of course, varies in size and 

 somewhat in appearance, according to soil and latitude of the location. 

 Many persons regard it as the most valuable of all our grasses. This title 

 to first honor depends, in my opinion, upon the character of soil and cli- 

 mate where grown, being a grass that spreads mainly by its creeping roots, 

 and flourishes most luxuriantly upon a porous lime-stone soil where the 

 underlying strata is a tenacious clay. It requires moisture to be always 

 within reach of the roots to keep it green, this being the character of most 

 of the soil in Kentucky, where it constitutes twenty-five per cent, of the 



