APPENDIX. 483 



At this time our pasture lands are green and bright, with a large 

 number of stock grazing contentedly on them, in many instances fat and 

 sleek as if it were May. Our farmers prize this grass very much, and I 

 feel confident when it has been kept for a winter pasture that it (with 

 the aid of some straw, corn husks, or hay for their stock when 

 the snow lies deep on the ground), can graze about as many cattle or 

 sheep in the winter as in the summer time ; this has been done by 

 Kobert L. Rankin on his farm near Bellbuckle depot and by several 

 others. There is scarcely an acre of our land that is not "glady" that 

 will not produce blue grass, and fully one half of our land will produce 

 this grass equal to any lands on this continent when it is properly cared 

 for. 



In addition to blue grass for pasturage we have learned that herds 

 grass (red top) makes a most excellent pasture, in fact it stands the hot 

 sun and drought of our summers better than either blue grass or orchard 

 grass ; it affords abundant grazing late in the fall and early winter and 

 rery early in the spring, and all kinds of stock love to graze it. In 

 addition to these two, many have been trying orchard grass for grazing 

 purposes ; all like it and say that it is a very early grass and stands our 

 mild winters well, and having a much larger and longer leaf than blue 

 grass yields a very large amount of grazing. Some say it is earlier than 

 blue grass, and many persons who have tried both grasses give it the 

 preference, for in addition to its excellent grazing qualities it makes a 

 first class hay, and when red clover is sown with it many persons regard 

 it as the best meadow a farmer could have. 



The writer once owned a pasture of 15 acres on slightly undulating 

 land, well set with blue grass, orchard grass and herds grass, that for 

 fifteen years was one of the best pastures he ever saw, and there was 

 110 season of the year that cattle and sheep could not find good grazing 

 there, and in the spring, summer and fall mouths it appeared to be 

 almost inexhaustable. 



This county is one of the very best in the State for meadows mixed 

 with timothy and herds grass. We have frequently seen in our mea- 

 dows, timothy 4J and 5 ft. high, growing by the side of herds grass at 

 least 3 ft. high and sometimes higher, standing very thick upon the 

 ground and producing at least two tons of excellent hay to the acre, and 

 this on land, never top-dressed with any fertilizer, the only manure ever 

 placed upon them was done by the stock as they graze.d in fall 



aud whiter. A large amount of the acreage of this county makes 

 the very best meadows, and there are lands where blue grass grows most 

 luxuriantly; but we have from 75, 000 to 100,000 acres of land that is 

 rery level, known as the "Flat Woods," on which meadows of the firrt 



quality abound. 



