FOR THE SOUTHERN STATES. 81 
grasses, to make good hay, it must be | high, has four to six purplish joints and 
cut before passing the blossom stage, as | as many dark green leaves; the flexious 
after that it deteriorates rapidly. The | spiked panicle, bearing the distant 
roots being short, it does not bear | spikelets, one in each bend. 
drought well, and exhausts the soil, | It should be sown in August or Sep- 
dying out ina few years. In these re- tember, at the rate of twenty-five or 
spects it is liable to the same objections | thirty pounds, or one bushel seed per 
as Timothy. The stem, one to two feet | acre. 
TALL MEADOW OAT GRASS. 
(Arrhenatherum Avenaceum.) 
Evergreen grassin Virginia, and other | must be cut the instant it blooms, and, 
Southern States, and it is the Tall Oat | after being cut, must not get wet by dew 
(Avena elatior) of Linzeus. Itis closely | or rain, which damages it greatly in 
related to the common oat, and has a quality and appearance. 
beautiful open panicle, leaning slightly For green soiling, it may be cut four 
to one side. “Spikelets two flowered, | or five times with favorable seasons. 
and a rudiment of a third, open; lowest | In from six to ten days after blooming, 
flower staminate or sterile, with a long | the seeds begin to ripen and fall, the 
bent awn below the middle ofthe back.” | upper onesfirst. Itis, therefore, a little 
—(Flint.) | troublesome to save the seed. As soon 
It is widely naturalized and welladapt- as those at the top of the panicle ripen 
ed to a great variety of soils. Onsandy, sufficiently to begin to drop, the heads 
or gravelly soils, it succeeds admirably, | should be cut off and dried, when the 
growing two or three feet high. On seeds will all thresh out readily and be 
rich, dry upland it grows from five to matured. After the seeds are ripe and 
seven feet high. It hasan abundance taken off, the long abundant leaves and 
of perennial, long fibrous roots, pene- stems are still green, and being mowed 
trating deeply in the soil, being, there- make good hay. 
fore, less affected hy drought or cold, It may be sown in March or April, 
and enabled to yield a large quantity and mowed the saine season; but for 
of foliage, winter and summer. These heavier yield, it is better to sow in Sep- 
advantages render it one ofthe very best | tember or October. Along the more 
grasses for the South, both for grazing southeraly belt, from the 31° parallel 
(being evergreen) andfor hay,admitting southward, it may be sownin November 
of being cut twice a year. Itis probably | and onward till the middle of December. 
the best winter grass ee can be ob- | Whenever sown it is one of the most 
tained. _ certain grasses to have a good catch. 
It will make twice as much hay as Not less than two bushels (14 pounds) 
Timothy, and containing a greater. peracreshould be sown. Like Timothy, 
quantity ofalbuminoidsand less of heat- on inhospitable soils, the root may 
producing principles, itis betteradapted sometimes become bulbous. The aver- 
to the uses of the Southern farmer, age annual nutrition yielded by this 
while it exhausts the surface soil less, | grass in the Southern belt, is probably 
and may be grazed indefinitely, except twice as great as in Pennsylvania and 
after mowing. To make good hay it other Northern States. 
JOHNSON GRASS. 
(Sorghum halapense. ) 
This has been called Cuba grass, ever, to call it Johnson grass, and leave 
Egyptian grass, Means grass, Alabama the name Guinea grass for the Panicum 
and Guinea grass, etc. — jumentorum, to which it properly be- 
It seems pretty well agreed now, how- longs. 
6 
