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HERDS GRASS AND RED GLOVER.
Editors Southern Cultivator: —ln compliance with
your request, I will give you the result of my observations
and experience, in the culture of Herds grass and Clover
at the South ; not, with the view, however, of adding to,
or detracting from, the excellent article of Mr. Hull, but
of corroborating what he has so forcibly illustrated.
During a residence in East Tennessee of twenty-five
years, I enjoyed many opportunities of witnessing the re
eults of the successful cultivation of Red Clover and the
grasses, in that fine agricultural section. My earliest
sports were among flowery meadows and verdant hill sides,
upon which immense herds of cattle, sheep and swine
were luxuriating, and amply repaying in golden butter,
snowy fleeces, and fine porkers, the husbandman for his
care. The neighboring stream was often turned upon the
young grass, while it struggled for existence in the hot
summer’s sun. Gypsum was applied at the rate of from
100 to 200 pounds per acre to Red Clover in the Spring,
and thus by the aid of the fertilizing effects of water and
artificial manures, clover and grass were highly remunera
tive crops in Tennessee. If a stray bunch of broom-sedge
made its appearance, it was at once dug up, and thus pre
vented from spreading. Red Clover was sown in the fall,
with wheat or with oats in the spring, and brushed in at
the rate of one bushel of clean seed, or thirty in the chaff,
to eight acres. The first year one crop of hay, and one of
seed were cut; second year, hogs turned on when the
clover was in bloom, and taken off in time for it to go
to seed, when it was turned under, and in September
cross-plowed and seeded with wheat—seldom failing to
produce a fine crop of wheat, and a fine stand of clover
from the seed turned under. Both clover and stubble
were then turned, and the land cultivated in corn ; or it
was let stand in clover if desired, and mow r ed and pastured
as before—the land thus becoming more fertile every
year. I have thus briefly adverted to the system of grass
and clover culture in Tennessee, to show that even there
Herds grass will yield to broom-sedge, and everywhere the
best land will become “ Clover sick,” or fail to yield pro
lific crops,, unless properly attended to.
Many years before the whistle of the locomotive was
heard in East Tennessee, I enjoyed the pleasure of a visic
to the “ Plaster Bank,” near Abingdon, Ya. The supply
seemed inexlniustiole, and the price at the bank was mere,
ly nominal—about $2 40 per ton. It was hauled sixty-five
miles by wagons, ground and sold at one dollar per hun
dred. From one to two hundred pounds per acre, on Red
Clover, would produce the most luxuriant growth on the
poorest land'that you could get a stand of Clover upon;
but, strange to say, hundreds of acres of Rod Clover were
suffered to maintain a growth scarcely sufficient for pas
turage. But lam digressing, as I intended at the outset
to ihow that Red Clover and Ilerdsgrass, or “ Red Top,”
will grow finely, even this far South , as I know from ac.
ual experiments, made under the most unfavorable circum
stances. I have grown two crops of as fine Herds grass as
I ever saw in Tennessee, in Madison county, Ga., without
»ny manuring whatever, and with no other preparation or
cultivation, than simply sowing the seed in February on a
plat of sandy land near the creek, and subject to over
flow. The seed were not even brushed in. I also have
Rod Clover growing by the side of my Herds grass, that
S()UTII ERN CU LTIVATOR.
was sown last March. In Towns county, Ga., I had a plat
of the poorest kind of sandy land in Red Clover, which,
without any manure, grew high encugh to cut, and im
proved every year. Upon the same plantation, I had as
fine Herds grass I ever saw on upland ; and upon an
old field, that would not have produced one barrel of corn
per acre, I had a stand of Herds grass sufficiently thick for
pasturage.
There are, in my immediate vicinity, not less than one
hundred acres of land, that w r ould yield as fine Herds
grass, I have no doubt, as Sweet Water Yalley in East
Tennessee ; and yet it is suffered to go unfenced and un
cleared—not even paying a tithe of its taxes.
As many inquiries have been, made of me recently, by
intelligent farmers, in reference to Clover and Grass cul
ture in this locality, I will simply state that Herds grass or
Red Top can he successfully grow n upon any land where
the Swamp Willow, Alder, and Maple grow, if properly
drained of the surface water, and on all stiff bottom lands.
Red Clover will grow finely, I think, on the most of our
Red Tine lands, but our Hickory, Post Oak, and Buckeye
lands, are still better adapted to its growth; and upon
these, I will guarantee that it will grow, if properly man
aged, yielding larger annual profits than any other crops,
both in hay and fine pasturage, almost insuring fine crop 9
of wheat, besides adding largely to the fertility of the
soil. Gypsum is certainly the cheapest and best manure
for Rod Clover, and will, if applied in the spring, at the
rate of from 100 to 300 pounds per acre, produce fine clo
ver on very thin land. I know there are many intelligent
men in Georgia, who will discredit these statements, and
laugh at the idea of grass and glover culture at the South;
and yet I know whereof I speak, and nothing but facts
and figures can convince me that I am in error.
Less than fifteen years ago, it was believed that wheat
would not grow in the extreme North Eastern portion of
Georgia. Five years from that time, one hundred and two
bushels of as fine wheat as I ever saw, were grown on five
acres of upland, without any manure, and with no other
preparation than sowing and plowing it in among the
growing corn. Since then, large wheat crops have been
grown on the different kinds of soil in that fine agricultu
ral, but undeveloped portion of Georgia. Large herds of
cattle were wintered there, almost entirely on herds grass,
previous to the war. The hay was stacked or penned on
the meadow, upon which the cattle fed or grazed at plea
sure. I have fed w r ork horses entirely on herds grass and
clover hay, keeping them in fine condition and in better
life than when fed entirely on corn. When cut and mix
ed with a little meal, it is very rich food. Cattle are fond
of it as oats, and sheep will winter entirely on it. It is a
beautiful perennial grass, seldom yielding to anything ex
cept briars and broom-sedge. It should be sown during
the full or winter, on land previously plowed or harrowed
at the rate of at least one bushel of clean seed per acre*
and all stock kept off until after the first crop has been
mowed.
I have thus briefly and imperfectly given you a sketch
of two valuable forage plants, with'no other desire than
to encourage their extensive cultivation in Georgia • as in
no other way can our exhausted old fields and low lands
be reclaimed and made profitable; and in no other way
can we cease to be dependent on the North and West for
hay, horses, hogs, beef, butter and wool. F. S. S.
Banks cotnity x Ga. y January , 1867,