106 THE GRASSES OP TENNESSEE. 



the spcouts above ground, run over the field with a harrow, 

 and there will be no further trouble. Afterwards cultivate 

 with a cultivator and double-shovel, one plowing with each 

 being all that is required. It will be necessary to thin 

 out the Tennessee millet with hoes, leaving a mere thread 

 of stems, as it stools prodigiously, but this will be unneces- 

 sary with either of the other three, as they scarcely stool 

 at all. 



It must be cut with reap hooks, taking just enough of 

 tBe head to enable the laborer to make it into bundles ; or 

 if preferred, it can be broken off at the head, taking only 

 the seed, leaving the stubble to renew the soil. If it is in- 

 tended to thresh it, the reap hook must be used, as it will 

 not thresh clean alone, but if the farmer wishes to tread it out 

 on a barn-floor with horses, the straw would involve much 

 waste, as the seeds become entangled with the straw, and 

 will not easily separate from it. They are, after treading, 

 separated from the chaff with an ordinary wheat-fan. 



This grass is of great value to the renter who has no 

 opportunity of continuing in possession of the land long 

 enough to set a meadow. But for the landowner, there is 

 no excuse for not providing himself with the best hay the 

 climate and soil affords, and there are plenty of good 

 grasses to suit every variety of soil in the State of Tennes- 

 see. If a farmer who is a landowner wishes to indulge the 

 pride, and it is an economical pride, of having fat horses, 

 sleek cattle, and plenty of bacon, let him at once see to his 

 meadows, for a good meadow ,is next to a corn-crib to pre- 

 pare pork for the smoke-house, as well as to fatten all kinds 

 of stock. A crop of millet is a good forerunner for a 

 meadow, as it destroys all the noxious weeds, and leaves 

 the land in fine condition for timothy or herds grass. 



An analysis of Hungarian grass by Welff when green 

 shows : 



