FOR ¥hE feOUTHteilN S^AiES. 



8^ 



send-off, and it will famish several good 

 mowings the first year. It grows well 

 between 29 - and 48 = latitude. It may 

 be mowed from two to four times a year, 

 according to the latitude, season and 

 treatment; yielding from one to three 

 tons of excellent hay per acre on poor 

 to medium land. In grazing and as 

 hay, most animals select it in preference 

 among mixtures in other grasses. In 

 lower latitudes it furnishes good winter 

 grazing, as well as for spring, summer 

 and fall. After grazing, or mowing, few 

 grasses grow so rapidly (three or six 

 inches per week), and are so soon ready 

 again for tooth or blade. It is easily 

 cured and handled. It is readily seeded 

 and catches with certainty. Its long, 

 deeply penetrating, fibrous roots enable 

 it to sustain itself and grow vigorously 



during droughts that dry up other trass- 

 es, except tall oat grass, which has 

 similar roots and characteristics. It 

 grows well in open lands and in forests 

 of large trees, the underbrush being all 

 cleared off. I have had it grown luxu- 

 riantly even in beech woods, where the 

 roots are superficial, in the crotches of 

 roots and close to the trunks of trees. 

 The hay is of high quality, and the 

 young grass contains a larger per cen- 

 tage of nutritive digestable matter than 

 any other grass. It thrives well without 

 any renewal on the same ground for 

 thif ty-five, nay forty years ; how much 

 longer, I am not able to say, It is 

 easily exterminated when the land is 

 desired for other crops. Is there any 

 other grass for which so much can be 

 said? 



RED TOP GRASS 



(Agrostis Vulgaris.) 



Red Top Grass. 



This is the best grass of England, 

 the herd grass of the Southern States ; 

 not in honor of any man, but probably, 

 because so well adapted to the herd. It 



is called also Fine Top, Burden's and 

 Borden's Grass. Varying greatly in 

 characters, according to soil, location, 

 climate and culture, some botanists 

 have styled it A. Polijino7^pha. It grows 

 two to three feet high, and I have mown 

 it when four feet high. It grows well 

 on hill tops and sides, in ditches, gullies 

 and marshes, but delights in moist 

 bottom land. It is not injured by over- 

 flows, though somewhat prolonged. In 

 marshy land it produces a very dense, 

 strong network of roots capable of sus- 

 taining the weight of men and animals 

 walking over it. 



It furnishes considerable grazing dur- 

 ing warm "spells" in winter, and in 

 spring and summer an abundant supply 

 of nutrition, It has a tendency, being 

 very hardy, to increase in density of 

 growth and extent of surface, and will 

 continue indefinitely, though easily 

 subdued by the plow. 



Cut before maturing seed, it makes a 

 good hay and large quantity. It seems 

 to grow taller in the Southern States 

 than it does further North, and to make 

 more and better hay and grazing. Red 

 Top and Timothy, being adapted to the 



