GARDEN 
MANUAL FOR THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
Kentucky Blue Grass. 
or shake it in this ceuntry, as it will 
cure perfectly well without it, and the | 
more you disturb, the more it will lose 
its leayes and fine stems. In stacking, 
Meadow Fescue. 
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a bucket full of salt for a commen size | 
stack strewn in the hay, will help te keep 
its nice green color. On small farms 
eommon horse hay rakes and hay-racks 
are used for making and carrying the 
hay to the stacks, but in large fields, bull- | 
rake3, “go-devils’” and hay stackers are | 
used. By their use the hay reaches the 
stack without having been touched with 
a pitch fork and the loss of leaves is | is not blue, but green as grass, and the 
greatly reduced. The leaves are so rich | 
in protein, for feeding purposes, 
that | 
they are equal, pound for pound, to the | 
best bran. 
Alfalfa should be cut when it com- 
mences to bloom and not wait, like a 
geod many farmers do, after it is past 
bloom, because it contains more autri- 
ment then, than when it commences to 
form the seeds. It may not weigh quite 
as mueh, but it is more relished by the 
stock and you have fine hay, instead of 
coarse stalks. Anether good point in not 
waiting too long, is that you give an 
earlier start to the next cutting. 
All farm animals are very fond of 
Alfalfa, green or dry, and it is calculated 
that one acre will, during the growing 
season from May till October, add 150 
pounds of meat to each of the 12 or 15 
growing pigs which can be kept on it. 
Even the chiekens and other fowls will, 
in winter, devour with relish a mash 
made up @f sealded Alfalfa leaves mixed 
with bran and corn chop, and will amply 
repay the careful keeper by filling the 
egg basket with eggs, when they are 
worth 35 and 40 cents a dozen. Bees do 
very well on a field of Alfalfa in bloem, 
and bee keepers are sure of a good crop 
of honey, the finest, richest, thickest, 
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_ April, preferable perhaps 
| Kentucky, 
| affected Dy dry weather, 
| the acre. 
Reseue Grass.. 
whitest and best flavored in the world. 
No honey can equal it and it runs from 
12 to 13 pounds to the gallon, while the 
other honeys run from 11 to 12 pounds. 
The nectar is so abundantly secreted, 
during the time it is in bloom, that for a 
given acreage no plant will support as 
many colonies. 
Kentucky Blue Glass. «Poa Pratensis.) 
This is also called smooth meadow grass, 
spear grass, and green grass, all thee 
very appropriate, characteristic names, 
but Blue is a misnomer for this grass. It 
greenest of grasses. Kentucky Blue 
Grass with its underground stems and 
many reots, sustains the heat and 
drought of the Southern States. It may 
be sown any time from September to 
in the latter 
half ef February or early in March. The 
surface of the land should be cleaned of 
trash of all kinds, smooth, even; and if 
recently plowed and harrowed, it should 
be rolled also. One year here gives a 
finer growth and show than two in 
or any other State so far 
North. Sow alone, 20 to 26 pounds, that 
is two bushels should be used; in mix- 
tures, 4 to 6 pounds. 
Meadow Fescue. (Festuca Pratensis}. 
As a pasturage grass we consider this 
ene of the most valuable. It is not 
as its roots 
_ penetrate the earth 12 to 15 inches; it is 
much relished by all kinds of stock on 
account of its long and tender leaves. It 
yields a very superior hay when cured. 
It is deserving of much more attention. 
Sow in spring or fall. Two bushels tos 
In some sectiens it is called 
Randall Grass. This should not be con- 
founded with the English Rye Grass, 
offered by some dealers as the same 
variety. 
