RED-TOP. 87 



i 

 wheat, rye or barley. There are a great many marshy spots 



in Tennessee, especially on the Tennessee and Mississippi 

 rivers, so full of water that nothing can be culti- 

 vated on them, and on these fine crops of Herds grass 

 could be secured every year, which would certainly be far 

 preferable to allowing them to run to waste. These bot- 

 toms are usually of surprising fertility, and would go far to 

 . supply the great deficiency of hay and obviate the necessity 

 of importing from our more thrifty northern neighbors. 

 It is a perennial, and if properly tramped every autumn 

 will keep good an indefinite length of time. 



This grass also finds a most congenial soil throughout 

 West Tennessee, in many places in that division of the 

 State attaining the height of five feet. It is probably bet- 

 ter adapted to all the soils of the State than any other 

 grass. I have seen it growing in princely luxuriance 6000 

 feet above the sea on the bald places of the Unaka Moun- 

 tains. It flourishes upon the slopes and in the valleys of 

 East Tennessee. It yields abundantly upon the sandstone 

 soils of the Cumberland Table-land, and beautifies the 

 rolling surfaces of the Highland Bim. In the Central 

 Basin it sparkles in the beauty of its verdure, and is 

 second only to red clover and timothy as a meadow grass. 

 No other grass is sown so much for hay upon the lands 

 lying at the western base of the Cumberland Table-land. 

 In Warren county especially it is highly esteemed for its 

 longevity and fruitfulness. In reply to a communication 

 addressed to him in regard to this grass, Mr. P. H. Mar- 

 bury writes as follows: 



Oakham, Waeebn Counts', Tenn. ( 

 January, 26, 1878. \ 



J. B. Killebrew, Esq., Nashville, Tennessee: 



You ask what soils suit beet for Herds grass and the best time for 

 sowing. 



It grows well on clay soils, in the damp, marshy swamp lands, as 

 well as on the highest elevations ; will grow in sandy lands, but the land 

 should be well packed by rolling or treading of stock. 



