84 
THE CULTIVATOK. 
closely grazed. It resembles Nimblewill, (Triticum re¬ 
pens ?) but is more delicate in its appearance, leaves 
much more numerous and narrower, stems small and 
solid, growth rapid; and when in meadow, it does not 
attain a height of over 12 or 14 inches. Yet I have 
seen this delicate looking grass afford, at a second cut¬ 
ting, between 5 and 6 tons to the acre of dried hay. The 
first and third cuttings not so good. It stands so thick on 
the ground, and its numerous lateral leaves so closely in¬ 
terlocked, that a good hand cannot cut over more than 
half an acre per day, and has to cast aside the swarth with 
his foot, at every second or third cut; the scythe blade 
passing under and cutting the grass, without laying it 
over. It is a troublesome grass in the cotton field, but 
can be got under by a crop of corn and pumpkins, or oats 
followed by peas; it can bear little or no shade. It is 
invaluable for coating embankments, and is of incalcula¬ 
ble benefit on the levees of the Mississippi. It is stated 
upon good authority, to be “ the Doul grass of the mid¬ 
dle provinces of Hindostan.” Whoever brought it to this 
country, is as deserving of a monument to his memory, 
here in the south, as is Parmentier in France. 
ec Within some three or four years, another creeping- 
grass has made its appearance here, said to be a native 
of and abundant in Cuba, and is rapidly spreading; that 
suits their upland, and thrives better there than Bermu¬ 
da, and is green and grows all winter, whilst the other 
is cut down by the first frost. I am now using it in my 
garden and grounds for edgings, grass plats, &c. and think 
it will answer well, as being easily kept within bounds, 
of a dwarfish growth, forming a close sod, and remaining 
green summer and winter. From the reports of Dr. 
Phillips and others, it would appear that in the Muskcto, 
a Texian grass, we have another valuable resource, par¬ 
ticularly for wiiiter pasture. Dr. P. presented me with 
a small quantity of seed, which is in the ground.” 
« You see how I ramble along! I will now return to 
my forgotten text, Sheep in the South. You are right,— 
i( the old notion of the impossibility of growing good 
wool at the South, is giving way to the evidence of facts.” 
The doctrine that all wool-bearing animals except the 
negro, have their wool, in a very short time, turned into 
hair in the South, is also exploded. True, the common 
sheep of the country, bred in and in for generations, and 
ranging now in miserable burnt up pastures, and again in 
the cotton fields, where they become excessively fat on 
the tender winter grass ; the one season shorn, and the 
next allowed to surrender their coats to the briars—such 
sheep have thin, scanty, hairy fleeces. But they form no 
criterion. Are there no such animals elsewhere, “ bred 
by, and the property of nobody in particular, the United 
States over ?” Why is the coat of the black-faced sheep 
of the mountains of Scotland, so coarse and hairy, whilst 
that of the Merino of Spain and of Hew South "Wales, 
where they scarcely ever see frost, so fine in its staple ? 
I feel satisfied of one thing, that the finer and more spi¬ 
ral the staple, and the closer and heavier the coat of 
wool, and the greater the abundance of yolk, the better will 
the wool on the sheep’s back resist the injurious effects 
of the sun. Sheep are kept by the planter, in almost 
every instance, for the mutton alone; some few manufac¬ 
ture the scanty crop of wool. The mutton is very fine,. 
almost equal to that of the mountain heather-fed sheep of 
my native country—and that you know, is a great deal 
for a Scotchman to say! The native sheep of which I 
speak, are remarkably full and broad in the loin, and the 
saddle is of course proportionably good. Sheep seem to 
me always to be in good health here—one never hears 
of the half of a large flock dying off within a few days, as 
is by no means unusual in colder countries, where num¬ 
bers have to be penned together for a considerable length 
of time. 
“ We have thus, you perceive, no scarcity of beef and 
vmtton. Many planters in Mississippi are now making 
their own pork, or are exerting themselves to do so. In 
the neighboring County of Jefferson, this is more particu¬ 
larly the case. I know of several there, who last season 
killed and cured from 100 to 200 head; one who killed 
350, and another over 700 head, all for their own home 
consumption. The gentleman last alluded to, assured me 
that all of his hogs were fattened entirely on peas, which 
vveie planted between the corn rows at the last tending, 
and the hogs turned in on them after the corn is gather¬ 
ed; finer bacon I have never eaten. This gentleman has 
killed his own pork ever since the second year of his 
farming, some thirty years; tans his own leather, makes 
his own shoes, harness, &c., wagons and farming uten¬ 
sils ; manufactures much of his winter clothing, and this 
without allowing himself to be influenced by the high or 
low prices of cotton; though of course, when cotton 
brought from 15 to 25 cents, he was t© all appearances, 
sinking money in employing his hands anywhere else but 
in the cotton field. However, the best proof that his sys¬ 
tem was the true one, is that he is one of the wealthiest 
men in the country, living in the greatest comfort, his 
family settled round him, and his negroes comfortable and 
happy. 
“A word more on hogs. I find that the pigs brought 
here from the north, grow none after warm weather sets 
in; and grown animals suffer much during the first sum¬ 
mer; whilst their produce, bred here, grow and thrive 
well. I have imported Newberry here, and a fine lot of 
thorough bred sows, from which I am raising my plan¬ 
tation stock—will they do ? 
“ You speak of being e anxious that some of your 
southern friends would try the experiment of sowing corn 
broadcast, as an article of food for animals, to be used for 
soiling during the summer, and cured and fed, after being 
cut, to them in the winter; and ascertain what the practi¬ 
cability and expense of keeping animals in this way 
would be.’ Corn leaves, you are aware, are now used 
extensively; but would not the stalk cured and cut into 
chaff, add much to the ability of the planter to feed stock, 
without materially adding to his expense? It would; 
and in my own case, does do so. At c Ingleside,’ I feed 
nothing else. My farm here, only consists of 40 acres of 
an old field, which the small force I keep here, enables 
me to improve very slowly; the more, as to it is added 
five acres of garden, &c., requiring much manure. As I 
keep five head of horses, two mules, two yoke of cattle, 
from two to six cows and their calves, and some twenty 
to thirty head of hogs, I was forced to try some such 
means of making fodder, or have blades to haul from one 
of the plantations. In 1842 I sowed some corn broadcast, 
but the dryness of the season and the poverty of the land, 
prevented it doing much. I did not cut it; but the stock 
when turned into the field, grazed on that patch of corn 
as long as there was a stump of it left. That winter I 
fed principally on crab grass hay, and corn cut and shock¬ 
ed, Kentucky fashion—which does not do well. This 
last season I drilled several different patches of corn at 
different times duringthe spring and summer; drills from 
24 to 3 feet apart, and the stalks almost touching in the 
drill. It all did well; so well .that though I had not 
more than an acre and half in all, I fed my stock on it du¬ 
ring the whole summer, passing the green corn through 
the cutting box, with a proportion of about one-third or 
one-fourth of dry fodder; cutting down and curing what 
was left of each patch, when the next sown became ripe 
enough to feed out. I have thus sufficient fodder to do 
me, I think, or nearly so, until oats are ripe, and my drill¬ 
ed corn comes in again. It must be in tassel, or tassel- 
ing, before cattle and horses at all relish it; and hogs, 
though they eat it greedily, fall off on it; for the reason, 
I think, that they reject all but the juice, and hang round 
the fence all day, waiting for more. I have tried Egyp¬ 
tian millett and Guinea corn, but prefer the maize. 
t( Pulling corn blades to make fodder, I consider the 
most unhealthy and unprofitable work done on the plan¬ 
tation.” 
Agricultural Society in Ohio. —Our friend Mr. 
G. Hezlep, of Trumbull county, informs us that an Ag¬ 
ricultural Society has been lately organized in that neigh¬ 
borhood. We rejoice to see that the spirited exertions 
of Mr. H. and others, for the improvement of agricul- 
culture,' are producing their proper effect. Mr. Hezlep 
is corresponding secretary to the society. 
At page 176 of our last vol., “ A Young Farmed* 
will see a description and engraving of a windlass foi 
raising water from wells, which will probably answer his 
purpose. 
