(69) 



•does all the work and incurs all the expense necessary to 

 make the richest pasturesj 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- 

 ^rass! Such will be the future of this fine country." 



"Blue-grass will always pay a good profit. Every acre 

 set in it 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. Cotton, tobacco, rice, hemp and sugar need la- 

 borers, but grass does not. If we sow our lands in grass we 

 can do without so much labor. The indisposition of farmers 

 to take advantage of experience is shown in the following 

 case, which is in point : 



" 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 

 «ight 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. 



It is generally conceded that the lands most productive 

 of blue grass are the calcareous soils. Lime is a natural 

 stimulant to it, and it flourishes best where natural supplies 

 of this salt are found. Go into a pasture that has an occa- 

 sional out-cropping of limestone, and the sprigs of grass 

 surrounding the rocks will be found more luxuriant than 



