BERMUDA GRASS. 159 



considerable, but the many improved plows of the present 

 day would be easily dragged through it. There is a sacred 

 grass in India called the Daub, and it is venerated by the 

 inhabitants on account of its wonderful usefulness. This is 

 said to be precisely the same as the Bermuda, except the 

 changes made by the differences of climate and soil. 



Mr. Affleck, in a letter to H. S. Randall, says of the 

 Bermuda grass : 



" We are fully aware of all the objections made to the 

 spreading of this grass, and have a practical knowledge of 

 all the trouble it occasions; and having also had several 

 years' experience of its great, its incalculable value, we 

 have no hesitation in stating that the latter is many-fold 

 greater than the former. The time is not far distant when 

 all the rough feed consumed on plantations will be made 

 from this grass; and when the planter will consider his hay 

 crop as of much more importance than his sugar or cotton. 

 The excellence of this plant for pasturage is evinced by two 

 circumstances. It is preferred by stock of every descrip- 

 tion to all other grass, and it grows luxuriantly in every 

 kind of soil. It possesses an additional advantage, that of 

 binding the loosest and most barren sandy tracts. But 

 when it has once taken possession of close, rich soil, its ex- 

 tirpation is so difficult as almost to defy all the skill, indus- 

 try and perseverance of farmers. It is used to bind the 

 levees on the banks of the Mississippi, and of railroads. 

 We saw it at Macon, Ga., Charleston, S. C, and so on, as 

 far north as City Point, Va., where it partially covers the 

 wharf. One hundred pounds of grass afford upward of 

 fifty of hay;, and we do cut, as a regular crop, five tons of 

 hay per acre each season. Were we to state how much more 

 has been cut, we might strain the belief of our readers. No 

 other grass will yield such an amount of valuable hay; sur- 

 pass it in nutritive qualities; support on an acre of pasture 

 such an amount of stock; will improve the soil more 

 quickly; or so effectually stop and fill up a wash or gully. 



