168 THE GRASSES OF TENNESSEE. 



it will grow here. They cannot but know it, for in almost 

 every neighborhood there is one or more luxuriant pastures; 

 and further, they know they are very profitable to their 

 owners, and lend a charming fascination to the landscape. 

 Every farmer knows what a convenience it is to have a 

 Blue Grass pasture, and when its value is considered, it is 

 difficult to account for the fact why there are so few. Many 

 a farmer has land suited for it, possibly so rocky, it is not 

 worth anything for cultivation, and thinks every year that 

 he will set that rocky lot down in Blue Grass, and yet 

 he waits and waits, year after year, and is still found mak- 

 ing the same resolution after the time of sowing has passed. 

 There is no excuse for this delay. When the sowing time 

 arrives one has a job he wants to finish, and when he is 

 through that he imagines it is too late. Another has not 

 the money to spare for the seed, yet all are going to sow, 

 and thus procrastination keeps in sight the rocky, fruitless 

 slopes instead of having them with a green sod of Blue 

 Grass to contrast with the lichen of the rocks, and crowd its 

 green spires in every crevice, to supply nutriment to hun- 

 gry sheep and cattle. 



It may seem tiiat it is so costly, many will not make the 

 effort. One man has a large farm, and to get a stand over 

 the whole, it would really cost a considerable sum, and so 

 he cannot make up his mind to spend that much at once, 

 but rather than sow one lot one year, and another lot an- 

 other year, he waits until he can sow all at once, and that 

 time never comes. 



But if the farmers will watch the system of managing 

 Blue Grass and learn it from those who have succeeded, they 

 will soon become so enthusiastic that every acre, capable of 

 producing it in Tennessee, will be seeded, and we shall have 

 a country as beautiful as the world-wide famous Blue Grass- 

 region of Kentucky. It may be interesting to know how 

 and when that region began the cultivation of it. Dr. F. 

 H. Gordon, of Smith county, early became impressed with 



