SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
3 
only be sufficient for a limited number of cattle, and if 
overstocked, as happens where the settlements are become 
more numerous, the pastures, together with the cattle, will 
decrease in value, if left without the proper artificial help, 
as will be considered in what follows : ^ j 
The natural pastures consist of a variety of native : 
grasses— some coarser, some finer and better, but less ofi 
the latter— mixed with other plants and v/eeds, some i 
fra^^rant and aromatic, and some with unpleasant smell, 
some eatable, but the greater part avoided by cattle, | 
which prefer the grasses as their most natural food. Now, 
where a range is overrun with catte, they will first eat 
up all the good grasses, and leave such plants untouched, 
as may be called weeds. The conser^uence is, that year 
after year, the good grasses are no more allowed to ripen 
and drop their seed, but the v/eeds the more so, and that 
these latter will spread and multiply — and the pasture 
gets bad, as is very natural — so that in the neighborhood i 
of towns and settlements, large tracts of prairie, and even 1 
fenced pastures, a fev/ years ago covercil with high gra.ss, 
are nov/ nearly bare in certain seasons, or composed in j 
9-lOths of their vegetation, of weeds, v/ith hardly one 
part in ten of good grasses. , 
The nature of domestic animal?, as milk and beef cattle, ! 
horses, sheep, goats, hogs, and also poultry, is such, that 
they want a certain amount of food in proportion to their 
bodily weight for mere suhisistence, without increase or 
produce of any kind, v/ithout which supply they v/ould 
die, and which, according to experiments made on model 
farms in Europe, with horned cattle, has been estimated 
at about one pound of average hay, or its equivalent in 
other food, for every 60 pounds of bodily w’eight of the 
animal, for one day : while to their complete saturation, 
the same cattle will consume about double the quantity, 
or one pound of good hay, or its equivalent, for every 30 
pounds ofbodily weight, every day. Now, as much more 
as a domestic animal will consume in food, over and above 
the quantity necessary for subsistence, or to keep alive, 
without loss, so much more in proportion will be its pro- 
duce, or use in some way ; the surpdus of food, or pro- 
ductive food, above what is wanted for subsistence alone, 
producing either milk with cows, or bodily increase with 
young cattle, or fat and meat with grov/n cattle, or labor 
with draft cattle, or progeny of young animals, or eggs 
with poultry ; or it may be consumed and wasted in run- 1 
ning far about for food on poor pastures, or to resist the : 
inclemency of the weather in v/ant of shelter. If use is ; 
exacted without corresponding food, the cattle will get j 
poor and fall off in flesh. It has been estimated from the 
same experiments that every 10 pounds of productive fod- 
der, in hay value, (above the subsistence) produce about 
10 pounds of milk with a milking cow, or one pound of 
bodily weight in growth of the animal v/hen young or be- ; 
ing fattened. It is farther in the nature of domestic ani- 
mals, that improved breeds can only be kept up by pro- 
per feeding, besides the breeding, so that the natural quali- • 
lies can freely develope themselves ; a good breed of milch j 
cows for example, require a certain quantity of suitable} 
food, to preserve their milk producing quality. In conse- 1 
quence of these natural conditions, if a milch cov/, having , 
a calf to nourish, does not find sufficient food or pasture, 
she will get poorer, will furnish only a small quantity of 
milk, if milked, and the calf v/ill be poor, while another 
cow of the same quality, with plenty of food, or good ' 
pasture, will keep in good condition, and improve even, ■ 
will nourish a calf v/ell, and besides, give three or four 
times as much milk as the former. Cows in Texas com- 
monly want about half of the good season to be restored 
again to good condition, and enabled to resist the subse-i 
quent bad season ; and so there is ou'y a shr.rt time left; j 
during which they can be of full use, and without their' 
great capacity to resist starvation and neglect in bad sea-' 
e- T. v not endure what they often do. 
As, therefore, the milk producing quality in good cows, 
can only be preserved and developed by a continual suf- 
ficiency of food, so it is more or less the case with all good 
qualities in breeds of domestic animals. Food for mere 
subsistence can bring no profit, or produce nothing; ljut 
good and sufficient feeding can bring the highest possible 
profit, if properly applied. Improved pastures and forage 
crops will furnish essential means to develope and pre- 
serve good c[ualitles for use, in cattle, for dairy produce, 
for flesh, fat, labor and raising of young stock. 
The culture of forage plants may be practiced in two 
different ways : one is to improve the natural pastures, 
and prepare good new pastures, by sowing seeds of good 
grasses and other forage plants, which can be mowed for 
hay, or grazed and used as pasture, and by extirpation of 
weeds and dressing of the ground; and the other way is 
to bring suitable forage plants into the farm rotation, to 
intermix befv/een grain f’rops, or raise such crops as pro- 
duce both grain and fodder, of which ways we shall treat 
more in detail. 
With regard to the natural growth of forage plants in 
Texas, there ere in particular, many excellent native 
grasses, as good , and better for the climate than Blue- 
Grass, Timothy, Ray Grass, and others in their respec- 
tive countries, A collection of such native grasses, made 
in a limited circuit, from March till July, shows more 
than fifty different species, of mostly good grasses, besides 
I several species of clovers, vetches and lathyrus; some of 
I the gras.ses low, and some growing tall, some blooming 
■ early and some later in the summer and full, and many 
j more besides, are remembered as seen in other places, so 
that there is a sufficient variety ofgowl native grasses for 
culture. The best of these compose, commonly, only a 
I small part of the prairie grasses, and are rather scarce, 
' v/hile some coarser kinds, be'-i^'es v/ecds, make up the 
greater part of the prairie vegetation. To judge from ap- 
i pearance, there are among these native grasses species of 
i firomu^, llolcus, Poo,, Fostuca, Pho,Lo,ns, A^roxlis, AUj- 
j 'pp.curu?,, Po.r,'po,lu7fL, Panicu'ra, Cynodon, Axra, Aveno., 
1 Hord/Mm, PVUicurn,, And,r(ypoi'on, and others. As an ex- 
; perirnent, one specie of these native grasses of the genus 
Pha,lo,ris, or Canary Grass, was cultivated since tv/o 
years, and proved to be an excellent forage grass, fit for 
v/irder pasture and hay making, ripe enough to be cut in 
April already, of a growth similar to wheat or timothy, 
very much reli.shefl by cattle, g^een and dry, and making 
a soft long hay of fragrant smell, if stored up ; it may be 
called Texas Canary Grass, Several others, of the native 
grasses .seem to improve in a similar way, if cultivated. 
Among these are the comrnoi Musquil Grass, and species 
of JPomus and Po,'fdcu'rri, and a mixture of seeds of dif- 
ferent species and genera of gra.sse9, sown in the fall, 
would, no doubt, produce good pastures and meadows, 
A collection of seeds of all the good native grasses of 
Texas, and their propagation by separate sowing, in order 
to obtain seeds for more extensive culture, would, no 
doubt, prove very useful, for the purpose of improving 
pastures. The capacity of the soil and climate of the 
State, to produce these grasses, and their existence and 
adapt“dnefis for improvement by cultivation, constitute a 
mine of riches, v/hich can only be rendered useful by cul- 
ture, but must be without value, if not developed in the 
proper v/ay, although for intensive agriculture, these are 
of more value than the natural advantages of the prai- 
ries. 
Cultivated grasses, and also clovers, are the most necc.v 
sary and natural food for domer.lic cattle, and the good 
grasses v/ill not grov/ in sufficient quantity and quality 
v/ithout artificial aid ; other forage plants are more or less 
only surrog it'-s of the grass family. The u -,e of cultiva’ed 
grasves is able to acccmipnsfi great resu! s 'or o-ie f>rmer. 
W;:er<^ laoor is c’cer and land cl cap in pioporlion us it 
thf' case io this roeoey, corn" "ed wi l- • -n '' ' t n. 
