(60) 



undergrowth of various kinds. "Where this undergrowth 

 has been burned off by firing the leaves in the fall and 

 winter, the pastures are as fine as are seen anywhere, not 

 excepting the prairies. It is true there are many species of 

 grasses that are worthless, or that are at least of doubtful 

 value, yet enough of them exist there to make them invalu- 

 able to the stockgrower. In the fall of the year these 

 grasses become tall, will turn over and form a roof or cov- 

 ering to young grass that grows under them all the winter, 

 and stock will paw at it until, the covering removed, they 

 get to the young succulent shoots thus kept alive through- 

 out our short winters. A detailed description of these wild 

 grasses, while it might interest the student, would be out of 

 place in a work of this kind, intended to be entirely prac- 

 tical ; for, however much they may be used in their indi- 

 genous situation, there is no probability of the farmer ever 

 getting them transferred to his fields. The grasses we here 

 treat of as pasture grasses, are alone those that will bear 

 sowing in new situations, and to this class we will strictly 

 adhere. For a more detailed description of the others, I 

 refer the reader to the work sent out from this Bureau on 

 the " Grasses of Tennessee." 



With this explanation we will describe the subjoined. 



ITIMBLE WILL — (MuUenbergia diffusa.) 



It is hardly necessary to do more than mention this grass, 

 which forms, in many sections, the bulk of the pastures of 

 the woods. It does not grow in fields, but in woods, where, 

 in the fall, after rains have set in, it carpets the earth with 

 living green. Various opinions are entertained as to its 

 nutritive qualities. Some farmers contend that their stock 

 are fond of it, and, on a sufficient range, cattle, horses and 



