APRIL 24 
THE RURAL NEW-VORKER. 
263 
a sward so fine and firm in texture as to bo 
scarcely, if at all, inferior to that of blue 
grass. While Its native habitat is on wet or 
almost swampy lands, it will thrive anywhere. 
Indeed, some of our best upland pastures are 
made up entirely of this grass. It should 
never be omitted in mixtures intended for 
permanent pastures. 
Orelnml I.tamm 
I do not hold in any high estimation, except 
for situations where better grasses will not 
succeed. It is admirably adapted to soils 
which are loose in texture, such as sands and 
gravels. It is inclined to grow in tufts, docs 
not make a close sward, and Is so coarse that 
slock will not readily eat it, if they can get 
anything better. 1 have lately seen inqui¬ 
ries in the papers as to whether this 
grass is the same as that which is com¬ 
monly known as dog's-foot. In England, 
it goes under tire name of cock’s-foot, hut 
our old farmers here call it dog's-foot. 
It appears to me that the shape of the pani¬ 
cles resembles more a dog's than a eoek's foot. 
As there is another grass which in the South 
is culled by the latter name (Punicum Crus- 
gulli) tbo former would seem to be prefera¬ 
ble. There Is one fact connected with the 
seed of this grass as generally offered in the 
market, which ought to bo noticed, und that 
is, that a ami one-half of it is pure chaff. 
The bundles of straw containing llie seed arc 
left out iu the field till they are about half- 
rolled. They are then taken up one by one 
and tapped with a stick, the seed lulling out 
ou a sheet spread beneath. These are then 
put in bugs uud, without further preparation, 
offered lor sale. What seed remains in the 
bundles after tills process, is afterwards 
thrashed out witli tl tils, thesoed being slightly 
fanned with a sheet as it lies iu bulk. The 
proper wuy to clean them is to run them 
through a wheat fan. Lf properly managed, 
no good seed will lie blown away, and they will 
be thoroughly cleared of ull chaff except that 
within which the kernels are iuctosed. The 
naked kernels—not being much larger than 
pin points—cannot be separated from the 
glumes. From the circumstances stated above, 
more seed must be sown than otherwise would 
bo uecessary. 
Meadow Fescue, 
known in Virginia as Randall grass, is in the 
opinion of many a much more valuable grass 
than orchard. It puts foi th us early iu thespring, 
remains as late in the tall, yields an equally 
luxuriant aftermath, uud la much liner iu tex¬ 
ture. It succeeds iu ueaily all situations. 
I have seen it growing moderately rank iu the 
bottom and ou the sides of washed-out gullies 
where there was no appearance of soil. It is 
quoted iu seedsmen's catalogues at from auto 
40o. per pound ; but can frequently bo bad iu 
OUr Virginia markets at horn $1,115 to $1.50 
per bushel of 14 llis. Some years ago, a 
writer iu the Southern Farmer, stated that 
this gruss was called Evergreen in this county 
from its remaining green throughout the sea¬ 
son. This is an error. The grass locally 
called here Evergreen is the Tail-meadow oat 
grata of the books. | U is called *• Evergreen” 
in North Carolina. Eds.] For laying down 
pastures, then, I would reccommend red clover, 
with all three, or any one or two of the three, 
grasses last above noticed. As to 
Mine or June U rax*—(poa praleusla), 
Us seeds from the low growth of the plant are 
not eusily saved and can be with difficulty ob- 
tumed iu large quantities. However, where 
it grows naturally, it is abundantly able to 
take care of itsell without any seed. Give It 
only u foot-bold, and it will root out and de¬ 
stroy the other grasses und usurp the entire 
premises. Hut wheu once u heavy blue grass 
sod is obtained, there is nothing further or 
better to bn desired. The owner of such U sod 
should never allow himself even to think of 
putting u plow iu it. There is another grass 
often seen iu old pastures called wire blue 
grass (Poa comprcssa) which affords short 
but nutritious grazing. It seldom sends up 
stems exceeding a foot iu bight. 
II remaius to consider 
Tim After Treatment of Pastures 
when they begin to fail. In the first place, 1 
have known old timothy meadows to bo re¬ 
newed by simply resowing Ihuaccd, and drag¬ 
ging over them a common ’•A" harrow with 
newly sharpened teeth. But the harrow is 
not a very effective Implement for this pur¬ 
pose, as it can only penetrate the soil from the 
force of its own weight. On heavy swards, 
and particularly on tenacious clays, it would 
scarcely make a mark that could he scorn 
it might be said that some of the Improved har¬ 
rows would do for this work, but I am inclined 
to think they would not. Thu Randall wheel 
harrow, which weighs 500 pounds would per¬ 
haps penetrate the soil deep enough, but then 
if the discs wore set with the lino of draft, 
they would not disturb the sod at all; If they 
were set at an unglo with the line of draft, 
they would turn furrows, which would not 
be what was wanted. The ouly implement at 
present to bo lrad which can be relied ou, is 
the common single coulter. This, while 
very slow, is an effective tool, and will tear 
up and scarify the sod to perfection. In the 
absence of manure, which can seldom or never 
be spared from the cereals, the scarifying of 
lbe sod is all that can be done to revive our 
pastures, and really on good lands it is all that 
is needed. In cases where the sod has simply 
become moss-grown, it will answer without 
reseeding the land. Scarifying the socf" will 
have as great an effect on the growth of the 
grass, as plowing other crops lias ou them. 
It is unfortunate that we have no implement 
specially adapted for accomplishing this work 
speedily, as they have In F.nglaud. One of 
these English implements, Finlayson's scari- 
fyer, exhibited astonishing powers In break¬ 
ing up Hyde Park in 183(1. It is made with 
an Iron frame somewhat In the shape of an 
“A" harrow set ou low wheeLs. There are niue 
curved steel tines Ret In the frame and 
pointed to enter the ground, Iho depth being 
regulated by a lever set up on the apex of the 
harrow, and running back within reach of 
the driver's hand. Running at full depth, the 
teeth will penetrate the grouud eight or nlue 
inches. All this class of British implements 
are very powerful, and could be largely used 
iu place of plows ou stubble land, as well 
shown by Mr. Fowler iu the Rural of Jan¬ 
uary 31 at. 
L’ulaskt Co., Va. 
SORGHUM HALEPENSE. 
JonNSON Grabs, False Guinea Gkass, 
Means Quash, Eoyptiam Grabs, Queen Val¬ 
ley Quash, Cuba Guars, btg. —I quote from 
the Report of the Department of Agriculture 
for 1878 •. 
“ A perennial grass with strong, vigorous roots, 
and an aouudauce of long and tolerably broad 
loaves. Its stems attain a bight vt live to six 
feet, with u largo and spreading paulclo. The 
Uo were and seeds are much like those or broom- 
corn. It has been muoU dismissed in the .Souttiom 
Journals ” 
This is not hardy at the North. It has been sev¬ 
eral times highly extolled iu advertisements. It 
is suid to send up a touder stern early in spring 
and ou good land may bo mowed half a dozen 
times iu the year, yielding a good crop each 
time. “ Block love it and give the preference 
to it over any other growth.” The rhlzoiuas 
or root-stocks, often called roots, are very nu¬ 
merous, long and as large as one’s lingers. 
These sprout freely aud make the plant very 
tenacious of Its footing, when once Introduced. 
Much arter the manner of quack grass, it 
comes to stay wheu it falls in grouud and in a 
climate suitable to its growth. The seeds will 
grow freely, so will fragments of the root¬ 
stocks. Having seen this gross and read much 
of it, the writer thinks the virtues of all grasses 
are not combined in this one. 
Pkofkssou W. J. Beal. 
— ■■■ • » » 
SEVERAL SOUTHERN GRASSES, AND 
THEIR POSSIBLE VALUE AT THE NORTH. 
M. B. BATE 11AM. 
Tub remarks on “Teosinte” iu the Rukal 
of January 10, prompts me to say a few words 
about two or three other Southern grasses— 
not much known us yet; and to suggest the 
inquiry whether somu one of them may not 
possibly bo found of value to stock and dairy 
farmers In our central and southern States, 
as well as In the South. 
The great desideratum with this class of our 
farmers is, some forage plant of vigorous 
growth and perennial habit that will withstand 
the summer droughts that so frequently occur 
aud cause the failure of ordinary grasses and 
forage crops. It needs to be something that 
produces plentifully with little care aud labor, 
is relished by cattle, both green and as hay, 
and will bear cutting repeatedly during the 
summer. 
Leaving Lucerne (“ Alfalfa,”) out of the list, 
as not a grass, and not suited to the generality 
of our soils, besides not being good for hay, 
is there any one of the Southern cxotle grasses, 
of the Sorghum or Pauicum fatally, that will 
nearly meet these requirements ? 
G roe It Valloy (Jruxx, Sorghum tlnlepenxo. 
It was mentioned iu the Ruhal last summer 
that some parties iu Missouri and southern 
Iowa wore advertising a supposed new forage 
plant, under the name of “Green Valley 
Grass,’ said to have been recently introduced 
fiom the West Indies, and wonderfully pro¬ 
ductive of nutritious green food und bay, and 
withstanding the severest droughts. Wishing 
to learn more about it, I wrote to the principal 
advertiser, asking fora few of the roots, as it 
was a perennial, and Inquiring if bo could give 
mo Its botanfc uume. lie sent the roots 
promptly, and said bo had not been able to 
learn the botauio name of tbo grass, and ho 
wished I would do so when it came into bloom. 
So, when the time arrived I sent, one of the 
beads to Professor Asa Gray, and be pro¬ 
nounced It Sorghum ImlepenBo; and this I 
knew, from the Reports of Iho Department of 
Agriculture, had been grown and written 
about for a number of years in several of the 
Southern SAalcs ; was called Guinea Grass by 
some, and Johnson Grass by others, tbo 
latter name being preferred, as there is an¬ 
other Guinea Grass which is a species of 
Panicum. Several writers speak In very high 
terms of this Johnson Grasp, as affording the 
greatest abundance of pasturage aud fodder, 
requiring to bo cut four or five times iu a sea¬ 
son to prevent its growing too tall, and that 
Its roots were so vigorous and enduring as to 
withstand severe droughts. 
In my own experiment, I planted the roots 
lust May, in poor sandy ground, at a very dry 
time, and gave them no water or culture; but 
the plants grew to five or six feet in bight, 
with leaves and branches on the sides, show¬ 
ing a disposition to produce plenty of forage; 
and as the whole season was remarkably dry, 
I was convinced that all which had been said 
in regard to the ability of this grass to with¬ 
stand drought is true. But now comes the 
question :—Will it endure our winters ? I pre¬ 
sume not— and this is a serious difficulty, but 
perhaps not insurmountable. 
Mr. Taylor of Missouri says, iu that climate, 
the past severe winter, while the surface roots 
were killed there wore plenty of the lower 
roots that kept alive to renew the crop, and he 
believes that the same will prove true with it 
in Ohio and similar latitudes, as the plant has 
very strong and jointed root stems, some of 
which run quite deep, and from which new 
shoots arise. Indeed, it is made a serious ob¬ 
jection to it, by some people, that ou account 
of this habit of growth it is very difficult to 
eradicate where it has once got possession; 
and the best wav to make new plantations is, 
to break up these rhizomas and scatter the 
pieces In furrows, like eowiug corn for 
fodder. 
Now, in ease the roots will not withstand our 
winters without protection, it is possible they 
will do so by having the grouud ridged with a 
plow in the fall so as to turn the soil over the 
rows of plants, then harrowing it down iu the 
spring, or, if that will not suffice, it will not bo 
much work to plow up a wagon-load or two of 
the surface roots in the fall and store them iu 
a root cellar, or cover them in a pit for the 
winter, and plant them iu the spring. This 
may be found to pay, If tbo plant proves as 
productive of green food or fodder, and as 
capable of withstanding drought us my single 
experiment seems to indicate. In order to test 
the question of winter treatment,! have left 
some plants entirely unprotected this winter, 
ridged the ground over others with a hoe, 
buried soma in the grouud below the reach of 
frost, and put some in a cellar with potatoes. 
Guinea Gruxx Proper—Panicum Jumentoruni, 
is another Southern plant, introduced into 
Florida from the West Indies some years 
ago, by Mr. Codrington, now editor of tlm 
Florida Agriculturist, at Delaud. He claims 
that this Is much superior to the Johnson Grass 
or Sorghum halopenae, at least for that portion 
of the South: that it Is equally as productive, 
and more nutritious lor cattle, besides being 
less exbansting to laud and less difficult to 
eradicate. 
Mr. Charles Mohr, a botauist of Mobile, and 
author of a treatise on tbo grasses and trees of 
Alabama, says the Guinea Grass—Panicum— 
la regarded as superior to the Johnson Grass— 
Sorghum though both are quite valuable aud 
of similar habits of growth; both arc perennial 
and easily propagated from the roots. Seeds 
are readily saved of the latter, hut not of the 
former, as they ripen hut few at a time, and 
drop as fast as they ripen. Both species need 
cutting four or five times during the summer, 
and make good hay if not allowed to grow too 
tall, and an abundance of pasture; but neither 
will endure frost; they are said to be natives 
of Africa. 
Para Gras*. 
Another now species of grass, said to bo 
superior to both the others for the extreme 
South, has recently been introduced by Mr. Cod- 
ringtou, from the West Indies, where it is 
called “ Para Grass,” having been introduced 
there from the Para valley iu Brazil. Mr. 
Mohr writes me that he has seen hut little of 
this grass, hut ho thinks very favorably of it 
for the Gulf region, especially for moist or wet 
soils, for which It secuis especially adapted. It 
appears to he of tbo genus Panicum, the spe¬ 
cific name not being yet determined. It is im¬ 
mensely productive of loaves aud stalks, which 
SOllQUUM UALKl’KNSK.—FIG. 123. 
