Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-03-12

not insuperable. On the contrary, we
NAV pluck safety from this danger,
and be compelled to fold our sheep, a
part of their management too often
omitted, but which should never be
neglected under any circumstances.
"By means of the fold you effectual-
" protect your focks from night
prowling dogs and their masters, and
the briar patches and CALLED spots in
your fields will soon be cleaned or en-
riched by their tramping and their
droppings.
Again, it may be objected that but
a small portion of the cleared lands of
the South are adapted to grass, and
some Of them not even to clover. To
certain extent this is true, but the fsct
is that Southern planters, absorbed in
the cultivation of tobacco, cotton and
sugar have never given sufficient
thought to other agricultural products
quite as indispensable in their way as
the three allowed named staples. In the
palmy days of cotton culture In Missis-
sippi the planter who raised his own
bread and meat was the exception.
Most of them were corn buyers, and
none of them raised pork. Most of
them had cotton on the brain. and they
all dreaded grass as they would chole-
IA, the boil worm and caterpillar.
Under the new dispensation you
must of necessity give more attention
to other possible farm products, and
chief among these are grass and other
forage plants. It is generally believed
that except on stiff clays grass cannot
be grown with profit on the tide-water
lands of the Southern States; but has
it ever been attempted? Until the at
tempt is made and fails we must refuse
to subscribe to the general belief.
Where is the grass which makes finer
or closer sod than the Bermuda, grow
ing in many house yards in Mississippi,
always green and growing under the
hottest sunlight and heaviest tramp
ing?
"Who has tried the new grass called
Japan clover, which has appeared in
some of the cotton States since the
war? Who among the Southern plant
ers have tried the miraculous powers of
gypsum in growing clover and grass?
Admitting that red clover will not stand
the prolonged heat of a Southern sum-
mer, there is plant of the same fami-
ly, and far nobler one, which will
a plant which fourishes in perennial
verdure on the bleak mountains of Au-
vergne in France, and all around the
Mediterranean, as far south as the cat
aracts of the Nile, under the fervid
sun of Egypt. This is the Medtcdgo
saliea, the lucerne of Europe, and the
alfalfa of California and South Ameri-
ca. But Southern farmers and plant
ers neglected this, the most valuable Of
all the forage plants, because in the
days of slavery they could think of
nothing but tobacco or cotton; and
they neglect it now, and are deferred
fromits cultivation, under the erroneous
impression that it must be drilled and
cultivated with the hoe. The traveller
between Alexandria and Cairo and
Suez, in Egypt, will see thousands of
acres knee-deep in lucerne which was
never put in with the drill or touched
with the hoe. Why should be not zee
the same in our Southern States: In
conclusion, wewill say purchase nothing
you can do without; make your own
bread and meat, and to do this sue
cessfully you must grOlr grass"