210 
annas in the village, and the price in Cawnpore is 6 annas. The 
grass is principally ‘palwa’? (Andropogon pertusus) a good feeding 
grass.” 
The success of this grass in Barbados is y^ marked as to attract 
general attention. Mr. 'Q. A. Barber, F.L.S., late Superintendent of 
cid in the Leewerd Islands, in Bulletin XXXIL, p. 168, 
- edm E ance of tlie pastures in Barbados calls to mind more than 
anything I can remember in the tropics that of the English hay fields. 
The grass is dan and bright in colour. It is either grazed or regu- 
larly cut, and made into * hay ' for the cattle, or fed to them mixed with 
a little molasses and oil-cake. The grass universally used is the * Sour 
grass.’ This grass has been successfully introduced to the island of Nevis 
by the Hon. Joseph Briggs, where there are several fine fields of it 
already now For dry limestone soils this grass should prove of 
great valu 
Mr. Bovell's account of Sour grass in Barbados is as follows :— 
“'The ‘Sour. ' is the chief fodder grass of this island, where it is 
cultivated almost to the exclusion of all others. In the dot districts 
and o 
food for the animals employed on the sugar estates. If cut shortly 
after it flowers, just as the fruit is setting, it forms valuable food for — 
horses, cattle, and mules, who — seem to eat it with relish ; but if it 
is allowed to get over-ripe the stems become hard and unpalatable, the 
animals then only eating the sat and tender parts unless it is ¢ 
up and. given them with the addition of oil-cake and molasses It is 
propagated by root cuttings, the cuttings being placed in holes about 
one foot apart each way, when it soon spreads, covering the whcle 
surface of the land. It goes on ratooning for r years, giving two, 
and sometimes three, cuttings annually. e yield varies with the soil, 
rainfall, and manurial treatment, but the average yield, without manure, 
may be set down from 5 to 7 tons per acre per annum; with the appli- 
cation of manure the yield i is greatly increased, an acre ‘then giving from. 
10 to 12 fn ns of fodder yearly. Until recently an acre of fairly go 
unmanured Sour grass was worth 3/. for the first cutting and 2/. for the 
second, the PE. paying cost of cutting and loading; lately, how- 
ever, owing to o the depreciation of the value of land, due to the fall in 
the price of sugar, an aere of Sour grass may be purchased for from 2/. 
to 4l. per acre for the two cuttings.’ 
The second of the fodder grasses of Barbados is the ** Hay-grass," 
.  Bouteloua juncifolia, Lag. (B. litigiosa, Lag.), a native of the West 
Indi 1 Ameri It i i 
: Grisebac 
(Flora of the British West Indian Islands, p. 537). It is found in 
_ Jamaica in the southern sandy districts, and is evidently a plant which 
_ thrives in hot dry ves It has nct hitherto been regarded as valuable 
: : for fodder pur rposes 
Mr, Bovell's account of it is as follows :— 
> Ute e Cannes tae im —A pasture grass growing in Barbados, 
ine ing, lands near the sea coast, where it affords 
rainy while. it is 
