158 THE GEASSE8 OP TENNESSEE. 



endure a shade, and the weeds must be mown from it the 

 first year. N 



In some of the worn and gullied fields of Tennessee, on her 

 mountain sides and on the sandy hills of many parts of the 

 State, the cultivation of this grass would be a grand im- 

 provement, making the waste places to bloom, where now 

 only sterility reigns. During the winter it, unlike blue 

 grass, disappears from view, but with the warming influ- 

 ences of the sun it springs up and affords a constant graz- 

 ing through the spring, summer and autumn months. The 

 farmers of the South, before the war, looked upon it as a 

 curse rather than a blessing, and used every endeavor to 

 destroy it. But a change of opinion has taken place in this 

 respect, and it is encouraged in its growth. 



It would be a good grass to mix with blue grass, as, when 

 it disappears in the winter, the blue grass and white clover 

 would spring up to keep the ground in a constant state of 

 verdure. It grows luxuriantly on the top of Lookout 

 Mountain, having been set there many years ago. This 

 mountain is 2,200 feet high, and has, as a matter of course, 

 excessively cold winters; so, if it thrives there, no fear 

 need be entertained as to its capacity to endure our climate. 

 Cattle are very fond of it, and will leave clover to feed 

 upon Bermuda. It also has the capacity to withstand any 

 amount of heat and drought, and months that are so dry as 

 to check the growth of blue grass will only make the Ber- 

 muda greener and more thrifty. The experiment of mix- 

 ing the two grasses, spoken of above, has been tried with 

 eminent success. 



It is also used in the South as a meadow grass, but Ten- 

 nessee has so many other grasses of more value, that it 

 would not be profitable to employ this, other than as a pas- 

 ture grass. 



Where it is indigenous, it has a great reputation as a 

 fertilizer, and many fields so worn out as to be worthltss, 

 have been reclaimed by it. The labor of plowing it up is 



