SOUTHEKN CULTIVATOR 
85 
worth 75 cents per 100 lbs. My 4 weeks’ cutting, then, is 
worth S450. 
5. Let us make another comparison of the value of hay 
and fodder. From 16 acres I cut, this year, about 90,000 
lbs, of hay, or 45 tons, which we will reckon as only 2)^ 
tons to the acre — to ballance any possible excess in calcu- 
lating the whole yield at 75 cents per 100 lbs. — the pro 
duct is $37. 50 per acre. Now the same land would yield 
say 40 bushels 
Corn, worth 50 cents the bushel $20 00 
400 lbs. fodder at 50 cents the 100 lbs. . . 2 00 
5 bushels peas at 60 cents per bushel 3 00 
Pea vines, say worth of 2 00 
Total $27 00 
Now, here is a clear gain of $9 50 upon each acre, 
■which in five years would amount to $47.50- Then you 
may add the greater cost of labors in working the corn 
crop, and also the damage to the land from this continual 
plowing, and the advantage, on the other hand, from 
shading and rest occasioned by the grass crop. 
6. Look at hay as one element in a system of rotation 
for bottom lands. Suppose we adopt Mr. Latta’s idea, 
and put bottom lands in grass for two years and then in 
corn the third year. The sod of a two years meadow 
turned under for corn every third year, would, in time, 
raise the productive power of our bottoms lands from 40 
bushels corn to 60, 80 and 100 bushels, and the cleansing 
crop every third year, would obviate what is so much 
feared by many in respect to the cultivated grasses, viz : 
the killing out of those grasses, by weeds and by native 
grasses. 
7. Another advantage of hay (I speak of that made 
from Timothy, Herds Grass or Clover) is, that it comes 
in earlier than fodder. I began to cut on the 1st July. 
Last year, as will be remembered, all kinds of “rough- 
ness” was scarce in the extreme. The first week in July 
there was very little fodder left in this neighborhood, 
but I had already a quantity of good hay cut and cured. 
8. Again, fodder-pulling, unless one has more force 
than we generally keep in proportion to lands cultivated, 
comes in the way of sowing turnips and even rye and 
barley. But if we had hay enough to deliver us from the 
degraded and miserable condition in which the old Ten- 
nessean judged us to be, as country where they pulled 
fodder" we could get in our turnips and afterwards our 
rye and our barley in good season, which surely are very 
important matters to any farming region. 
9. The history of my experiment is as follows : — In 
September, 1853, I cut off the corn from 16 acres bottom 
and hauled it away, stalks and all, to the neighboring hill 
sides,where I set it up in shocks until I got time to take 
it home. In the early part of October, after thoroughly 
preparing the land for plowing and harrowing, 1 brushed 
in the grass seed and then rolled it it over with a heavy 
log roller. What I sowed was a mixture of 
Timothy 4 bushels. 
Orchard 18 “ 
Clover 2)^ “ 
Herds grass 5 “ 
In all 29).^ bushels. 
The cost of seed was about $63.24. The following 
July I cut 25 tons of hay, and in October 10 tons more. 
After that, I pastured the meadow with from 15 to 20 
head of cattle and several horses for more than a month. 
This year is the second year of the meadow. I have cut 
twice and obtained 45 tons, and can now pasture my 
cattle until the wet winter sets in. 
10. The second crop of both years, was native grass- 
es. I am by no means certain that these grasses will not 
«at out the foreign grasses. But I should not regard that 
as any very great evil, for I would have no objection to 
turn my meadow into corn next year, and sow down a 
fresh meadow elsewhere, if I had provided the seed in 
time. 
11. Asa first experiment with me, I cannot regard this 
one as very successful. Indeed I wonder that such a mix- 
ture of seeds as I sowed, (directed by a Northern agricul- 
iral wrj'er, however,) did not ensure a complete failure, 
t was a great error, I am satisfied, to put in the orchard 
rass. Ii comes in much earlier than the others and it 
•rows in tufts and broad tussocks which fit it rather for 
■ istiire than meadow. Were I te sow again, I would 
put in, for every acre, 
Timothy 12 quarts. 
Herds grass 12 “ 
Clover 6 “ 
12. There is a grass introduced amongst us, by our as- 
sociate, Mr. Latta, from North Carolina (originally from 
England) which he considers very superior, both for hay 
and pasture. It is called the Evergreen Grass. I have 
commenced to sow down some 6 acres of it, putting in 2^ 
bushels to the acre. 
13. I have made no very satisfactory experiments with 
grass on the uplands. From what I have attempted, 
however, I am of the opinion that sown in September, Red 
Clover might do well in our climate, in uplands. 
John B. Auger, 
[in Farmer and Planter. 
“BLOODY MUK IN COWS ’’-“SNAKES”!!! 
Editors Southern Cultivator — I notice your request 
in the January number, made through “A Subscriber,” in 
Homer, La. While I will not pretend to state that I know 
the cause of the above appearance in milk I have thought 
it might not be amiss to relate a circumstance known to 
me, pretty strongly confirmatory of a very common belief. 
From my nursery up to manhood, like all others, I pre- 
sume, I have heard many strange and wonderful tales 
about the various animals, &c. None, perhaps, have 
caused greater wonder than the snake — the bear and wolf 
not excepted — nor the Great Sea Serpent included. 
One tale would embrace the wonderful story of a certain 
person’s swallowing a snake (name and residence given) 
who after being annoyed for a long time by something fre- 
quently moving o.bout in the stomach, but always much worse 
when the person was hungry, was at length induced to 
starve himself, with a bowl of hot mtish and milk placed un- 
der his mouth, till the snake appeared and was thrust 
out of his mouth. 
Another tale would relate, that a man had a certain 
cow that gave '‘bloody milk,” upon being watched, was 
seen to go to a certain place in the pasture, daily, to be 
sucked by a snake, the snake coiling around the leg and 
reaching up to suck — indeed the cow would bellow and 
hurry to the known place. 
Now, for what I know. Some years ago, in making a 
cow-pen, I enclosed a large pile of logs, hauled and thrown 
together to build a corn crib. 
After the cows had been penned for some time (only at 
night) themilker complained that “asnake sucked a certain 
cow,” and that she gave “bloody milk” — the bloody milk 
only flowed from one particular teat. Knowing her firm 
belief in the snojce-sucking doctrine,! told her to watch and 
she would, perhaps, catch the snake after a while. Things 
went on in this way for some time, the cow continuing to 
,dve bloody milk as above, when, in passing, some per- 
son saw a large black snake lying near th« pile of logs, 
IS if sunning himself, and immediately pursuit was made; 
;he snake run under the pile of logs and was finally kill- 
ed, after a removal of the logs, with much labor. I have. 
