816 TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



form of Bermula grass, namely, by stem cuttings. Some stems 

 of the giant Bermuda grass were received by the Hawaii Sta- 

 tion and planted in a dry locality on the station grounds. The 

 plant made an astonishingly rapid growth, throwing out run- 

 ners lo feet long within a period of 2 months. From this 

 plat material was sent to several ranchers, who reported good 

 results in both dry and wet districts. 



Sudan grass during the past few years has become familiar 

 to all readers of agricultural literature on account of the 

 great promise which it has given, especially in the Southern 

 States. This grass, as is generally known, is essentially a 

 variety of Johnson grass but without its underground root- 

 stock. It is native of Africa. The grass was made the 

 subject of experiment at the Hawaii Experiment Station, 

 where it grew to a height of 5 feet and began flowering within 

 55 days from seeding. The seed has been distributed to all 

 of the islands and favorable' reports have been received re- 

 garding it from all localities except those at considerable alti- 

 tudes. Neither the Sudan grass nor the closely related Tunis 

 grass appear to thrive well at high altitudes. The Sudan 

 grass rattoons readily provided a reasonable amount of 

 moisture is furnished. One of the difficulties of growing the 

 grass for seed in the Tropics is the extreme fondness which 

 birds show for this seed. Sudan grass grows to a height of 

 6 to II feet, but even the coarse stems of the rankest forms 

 of the grass appear to be highly palatable to horses and cat- 

 tle. The Tunis grass is a closely related variety, very similar 

 to the Sudan grass, but it has a long narrow panicle. 



MISCELLANEOUS FORAGE PLANTS 



Mention has already been made at the beginning of this 

 chapter of some of the miscellaneous plants and materials 

 used for forage purposes in tropical countries. It might be 

 well to give details regarding a few' of these miscellaneous 



