240 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
[October i, 1890. 
With a view to providiug better aud more extended 
grazing in certain iocalities, such for instance as in the 
Badulla, Hambanlota and Matara districts, we would 
suggest that a sutiioiency of Grown ohena laud in the 
vicinity of each village or group of villages be set apart 
for this purpose, and the cultivators allowed to clear it 
from underwood, leaving only a few of the larger trees 
for light shade : beneath these, if the ground be Kept 
free from undergrowth aud weeds, good nutritious 
grazing could soon be obtained, which would be available 
for cattle in seasons when the grass on the lower aud 
more exposed lauds would be parched and burnt up 
It would no doubt be very desirable if some of the 
European roots employed for cattle feeding could be 
introduced into this country, for stall-leeding during 
seasons when the ordinary grazing failed. Mangold 
Wurzelhas been grown at Peradeniya with complete 
success, and, contrary to expectation, it has been found 
that this root is not attacked by pigs, or rats, which 
swarm in abuudauee ou the land on which it was pro- 
duced. The question of its preservation after digging, 
during ceriaiu seasons of the year, would soon be de- 
termined by a few experiments 
In reperusing the papers on the Grasses of 
Ceylon, contributed by the late Mr. Wm. Fergusou 
to the Journal of our local Asialio Society, in 
1880, we are simply amazed to see what a wealth 
of plants, indigenous and introduced, is available 
for cattle and horse food, if they were only pro- 
perly treated and cultivated. Our attention is 
htst attracted to Hygroryza aristata, which grows 
floating on water, auu is a grass of which, according 
to Koxburgh, cattle are fond. This grass and others 
of a like habit, of which many are enumerated, might 
be encouraged to grow on the undrained water- 
covered swamps which occupy so large an area in 
the lowcounlry extending inland Irom Colombo, 
along the route of the railway and by the sides of the 
Kelaui river. Coix-gigantea, ,“kinndi mana" of 
the Sinhalese, although a tall coarse grass is freely 
eaten by cattle. Faspalum scrohiculatum in its wild 
state IS common from the seashore to Nuwara 
Bliya, and cattle are very fond of it, whether green 
or dry. Fanicum sanguinale is one of the most 
abundant grasses in the island. Cattle are fond 
of it and it forms one of our common pasture 
grasses. Of P. cifiare cattle are very fond. F.java- 
cuium is greedily eaten by cattle. Of P. burmarii 
it is recorded : — 
This is the Pagister grass, aud Scotch grass of the 
West Indies. Writing about Jamaica., Loudon in his 
Fucyclopmdia ot Agri. alludes t j this grass as follows ; — 
The island abounds also with dilfereut kinds ot grass, of 
.excellent quality, the artificial grass called Scot's Grass 
(Panicum hirielium, fig 199, a. p. 195) grows spou- 
taneously in must ol the swamps and morasses of the 
West Inuies; and it is so productive, that a single 
acre of it will maintain five horses tor a whole year. 
Crus galU, cultivated as a millet, grows wild 
“s' a grass, of which cattle are fond, bo with P. 
J^uitans, which floats on water and grows on the 
edges of sheets of water. Of F. distachyum and 
P. prostratum cattle are fond. P. trujonum is Very 
abundant from the seashore to severa,! thousand 
feet elevattion, and forms with P. ovalijolicum and 
P. curvatum the principal part of the fodder col- 
lected by he grass-women for horses in the Cinna- 
mon Gardens. OtF.rcpens, *• mlora tana ” of the 
binhalese, it is said 
I'nib is one of the most common grasses m the 
isLind, aud hignly valued as fodder tor cattle, large 
quantities of u being brought into and sold in Colombo. 
1 1 18 indigent. US to Jturope, Alrica, Asia and America, 
nd in t.eylou grows equally well in tlie dry sandy 
soil as It does m marshes, or water, us long creeping 
undergiound Hlenis enahliiig it to endure the hoi dry 
* bee letter from the Eirootor of the Botanical Gar- 
dens, Appendix, p. 7U. 
weather. It is one of the most diflBcult plants to get 
riti of ones it establishes itself in any locality, and in 
this re.spect resembles the Triticum repens of Europe. 
It is found from the sea coast up to Nuwara Eiiya, 
aud is a common weed on some coffee estates. 
Of another grass it is written : — 
Roxburgh states that the P. paludosum is of a coarse 
nature and that cattle are not fond of it, but it is 
eaten greedily by them, and a eupply of specimeus 
collected by me for the Peradeniy i Gardens was eaten 
during the night by a stray bullock. 
Of P. myurus it is said : — 
This is a very in grass found in the edges of 
canals or growing in the water with large swollen 
culms, and light green foliage. Cattle are fond of it. 
It is one of the grasses which rapidly spreads over 
shallow bits of water and helps to choke them up. 
Cattle also eat P. interruptum, P, asperum and P. 
sordidum. 
We now come to the very best of our in- 
troduced and oultivated grasses, P, jumentorum, of 
which we are told : — 
This is the famous Guinea Grass so well-known lathe 
West Indies, in India and Ceylon. It is the Rata 
(foreign) Tana of the Sinhalese. When and by whom 
it was introduced to Ceyion I find no record, though it 
is probable there may be one in the Royal Gardens at 
Peradeniya. It was grown in Ceylon in Moon’s time, 1824, 
at any rate. The late Dr. Gardner introduced the seed of 
what he supposed to be a new fodder grass to Ceylon, 
but in 1843 or 4, he gave a full description of it in the 
Ceylon Observer, proving that it was identical with the 
Guinea Grass. It was introduced to Jamaica about 
1744, from the Coast of Guinea. The following is an 
extract from Lunan’s Hortus Jamaicensis 
This most valuable grass is a native of Africa, and was 
introduced into the island many years ago by the merest 
accident. Mr. John Ellis got some birds from the 
coast of Guinea, and with them some seeds for their 
support : the birds dying soon after, the seeds were 
thrown out of doors as useless. From these seeds grew 
some luxuriant grass, which attracted Mr. Ellis’s notice, 
and he had a horse and a cow brought where it was, 
when both of them greedily ate of it. It was then trans- 
planted into a garden and gradually cultivated, until it 
has become one ot the most lucrative and useful plants 
in Jamaica. It agrees with almost every soil and situa- 
tion, and has rendered many rocky and otherwise barren 
spots of Jamaica very valuable, as affording support 
to herds of cattle and horses. The growth of this grass 
is quick, for in wet weather, and in a favourable situa- 
tion, it may be cut once in a fortnight. It resists dry 
weather for a considerable time, and even, when parched 
up, the slightest shower will revive it. It rises from 
five to eight feet high. When of proper strength it is 
a very excellent lood for horses and cattle, which, 
when considerably lean and reduced, wil be restored to 
flesh and fatness in two or three months by feeding 
upon it. 
There can be no doubt that the Guinea Grass, and 
what is most erroneously called in Oeylon Mauritius 
Grass, are the two most valuable fodder plants growing 
in Ceylon, — I have seen the Guinea Grass grow in what 
seems to be the pure white sand of the Cinnamon 
Gardens near Colombo, to a height of 6 to 8 feet, and if 
well manured and kept free of weeds, it will in rainy 
weather give a very fair crop monthly. It grows freely 
up to an elevation of 5,000 to 6,000 feet on the Coffee 
estates, but though a valuable fodder grass at these 
elevations, it does not grow to such a height as it does 
at lower elevations. Ills extensively planted along the 
edges of foot and bridle paths on Coffee estates, but 
Mr. Morris gave his opinion against this practice, as 
the grass is supposed to harbour the mycelium of the 
Coffee leaf fungus. 
When coffee flourished, the paths of many estates 
were, as Mr. W. Ferguson indicated, defined by this 
grass. But it attracted numerous hares which proved 
deairuotive, and when the bad times for coffee 
came and it was proved that manure merely en- 
couraged leaf-disease and white grub, the expensive 
culture of Guinea grass was very generally aban- 
doned. 
