130 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



artificial grasses, this might seem plausible 

 enough, but many enterprizing farmers and 

 planters have discovered, that just in proportion 

 to the quantity of the artificial grasses culti- 

 vated, is the means of grazing and keeping 

 stock, and just in proportion to these, is the im- 

 provement in the stock, the facility of making 

 manure, and the consequent improvement of the 

 land. My own observation has satisfied me, 

 that the dung dropped by cattle running on land 

 cultivated on the three and four shift systems, 

 "without the aid of the grasses, bears no propor- 

 tion either in quality or quantity, to that from 

 land laid down in herdsgrass or clover. As hay, 

 herdsgrass has no superior, whether you regard 

 the quantity or the nutritive qualities of the 

 food, for every variety of farm stock, or the litter 

 which it affords for the stables and farm-pens. 

 Here the herdsgrass has the most decided ad- 

 vantage over clover, not only in the quantity 

 and quality of the hay, but in facility of curing 

 and preserving it from the effects of moist or 

 rainy weather, or from heat and mould in the 

 shock or stack. Another advantage is, that 

 those, who cultivate herdsgrass, can always ob- 

 tain their seed at a trifling expense of time and 

 labor, while, as every tobacco planter knows, 

 who has tried it, the clover seed must either be 

 saved at a great expense of both time and labor, 

 at a very busy season, or be purchased, and thus 

 become annually a heavy tax. Another advan- 

 tage of herdsgrass over clover, is, that land once 

 well turfed, will remain so for years, while clo 

 ver begins to decline after the second year. And 

 again, clover is not only not valuable for grazing 

 after the month of June, but actually deleterious 

 to stock, and particularly to horses, mules, and 

 sheep, while the herdsgrass affords fine grazing 

 for every variety of farm stock throughout the 

 whole year, with the exception of those portions 

 of winter, when every species of vegetation is 

 locked up with snow or frost. Farther, the 

 herdsgrass when once sufficiently thick to form 

 a strong turf, even on land really poor, will, in 

 a course of years, restore it to tolerable produc- 

 tiveness ; while on the same land clover will not 

 grow sufficiently without the aid of manure, to 

 produce any obvious improvement of the soil. 

 More than twenty years experience has produced 

 but little change in my views in regard to these 

 grasses, except, that I am now persuaded that 

 a judicious system of grazing ought to go with 

 them, hand in hand. The long practice of 

 seeding poor, thin and pipe clay flats, in herds- 

 grass, has satisfied me that there is scarcely any 

 such lands that may not thus be brought, even 

 to tobacco heart, and especially, where they are 

 occasionally inundated. And I have long known, 

 and probably you all know, that there is no land 

 which produces finer tobacco than the old herds- 

 grass meadow. But I have yet to learn that 

 any such land, or any other poor land, has been 



restored to tobacco heart by the use of clover 

 alone. 



I have but recently turned my attention ex- 

 tensively to the cultivation of herdsgrass on 

 Bluestone, having from one or two failures to 

 get a good stand, erroneously supposed that the 

 fault was in the soil. I have ascertained, how- 

 ever, from the experience of the two last years, 

 that it only requires, on oat land, to be seeded 

 thick, immediately after the land is ploughed 

 and before a rain ensues, to ensure a good stand. 

 And that the soft, sandy hills, on the west side 

 of the creek, present at this time as good a 

 stand as any close, moist soil not more thickly 

 sown. 



While I would most urgently impress upon 

 our Club, the importance of sowing grass ex- 

 clusively, and especially herdsgrass, 1 am far 

 from wishing to disparage, or enter the lists 

 against clover. For I am myself pursuing the 

 three shift rotation, of tobacco, wheat, and clo- 

 ver ; and so far, have much cause to be gratified 

 at the result. There is much too, depending on 

 the peculiar situation of the farm, character of 

 the land, and other circumstances, to determine 

 the planter as to the expediency of cultivating 

 the one or the other. I would earnestly recom- 

 mend both, but with my present views, founded 

 on the experience of others, as well as my own, 

 I am constrained to give my most decided opi- 

 nion in favor of herdsgrass, as a general im- 

 prover ; and in coming to this conclusion I have 

 not lost sight of the benefits to be derived from 

 either. For the value of any material or crop 

 used on the farm for improvement to be fairly 

 estimated must be considered in all the various 

 uses to which it is applied ; and in all these I 

 consider the herdsgrass as adding to the re- 

 sources of improvement, not even excepting the 

 raising hay for market ; for I doubt not that af- 

 ter abstracting the hay crop, the meliorating 

 effects of the remaining turf, wdl richly com- 

 pensate the owner for all the trouble and expense 

 of preparation, seeding, &c. 



In this part of the country, we have no avail- 

 able resources for manure but those derived from 

 the farm and its appurtenances. We have no 

 right to expect that marl, lime, plaster, poudrette, 

 or any other substance of foreign growth or 

 manufacture can ever be obtained here sufficient- 

 ly cheap, to justify their general and extensive 

 use. It. becomes us, therefore, to cast about for 

 some other material to supply their place ; and 

 to do this, we must (and the sooner the better) 

 look at home, and here we may, in some mea- 

 sure, help to check that constant drain which 

 empties our purses for the foreign capitalists and 

 brings no corresponding benefits to ourselves. 



Vegetable matter mixed with animal and 

 other substances, must ever constitute our chief 

 resource ; and there is no vegetable matter more 

 valuable, and none can be raised in greater 



