130 FARM GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 
early summer. On the experiment station farm at 
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, thirty head of cattle of all ages 
were kept on seventeen acres of Bermuda pasture, with 
no other feed, from March 25 to November1. Inaddi- 
tion to this, sixteen steers were kept on the same land 
for a few weeks when the growth was most vigorous. 
Professor Killebrew, of Tennessee, states that an acreof 
good Bermuda pasture will keep ten sheep in good con- 
dition for eight months inthe year. This, of course, is 
possible only on the best alluvial soils in the warmer 
parts of the South. 
For best results it should be grazed systematically 
—i.e., the pasture subdivided, and the stock turned into 
one inclosure and allowed to graze it closely, and then 
removed to the next inclosure. They should then be 
returned to the first lot before the grass becomes tough 
and wiry. (Bermuda grassis called wire-grassin many 
parts of the South because of the wiry nature of the 
fully matured stems.) If the stock is turned into a 
single large field, a good deal of the grass becomes so 
wiry by midsummer that they will not eat it readily. 
On poor uplands Bermuda grass yields as little as 
blue-grass does in similar situations. In moist cli- 
mates it will grow on nearly pure sand, while it also 
thrives on low moist lands, and is hardly injured by 
prolonged overflow. It is decidedly the best sand- 
binder and bank-holder in the South. It is the best 
of all grasses for covering washed hillsides. It will 
not thrive, however, on waste lands unless they are 
kept free from briers, sedge, and all tall-growing 
plants that would tend to shade it. On good alluvial 
soils it grows large enough to cut for hay, and fur- 
