Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-08-10
Book Notice.

Book Notice.
| THE GRASSES OF TENNESSEE; INCLUDING
| CEREALS AND FORAGE PLANTS. By j. b.
/ KilIebrew, Commissioner of Agriculture,
Statistics and Mines.
Mr.. Killebrew does not let the
grass grow under his feet Though
this work evinces a high apprecia-
ton of grasses), but gives us barely
time for an appreciative notice of
one book before he has another ready
for US. The present work is an ex-
haustive treatise on native and i'm
ported grasses and other plants used
in bulk for the feeding of stock.
Important as this subject is to the
agriculturalist, it is every year be-
coming more important as we APP
proach the period when our supply
of new land appears to be no longer
| inexhaustible. When this period
shall be fully attained, and it is
nearer at hand than many imagine,
then the primary Importance of
stock-feed will be fully appreciated,
for then it must, in the nature of
things, assume that primary rank
in the farmers catalogue of essen
tials which it holds in Europe.
The European farmer needs a
constant supply of manure f; tc have
this he must have stock, and, to
keep his stock, he must have pas
ture in summer and root crops and
hay for the winter. 1t would amaze
an American farmer to witness the
amount of land and labor which is
devoted to this purpose. The pres
| ent writer was raised on an English
farm of about three hundred and
fifty acres. Let not our readers be
alarmed, we are not going to emu
late Mr.. Greely's work, entitled
"What 1 Know About Farming"
| though such a work would not be
vOluminOus in our case; we are
only going to give an idea of the
proportion which grass culture as
snmes there. OF the $50 acres,
perhaps 80 was equally divided
between woods and permanent
pasture. This pasture was, during
the greater portion of the year, oc-
cupied by herds of cattle in the
lower portion and fiocks of sheep in
the upland. In June, however,
the richest portion was mown for
meadow hay. But this 70 acres
was not mOiety of the area appro-
priated to the supply of the live
stock. Of the remaining 200 acres
of arabic land, which was divided
into four equal parts, one-fourth
only was devoted to wheat, the
staple of the Norfolk farmer, one
fourth to barley, One-fourth to hay,
and the remainder to root crops,
such as turnips, mangel, warzel,
etc. These crops, of course, were
interchanged between one portion
of the arabic land and another, so
that the same crop was never raised
on the same land for two successive
years. Hence we have out of the
$50 acres a full half the farm Occu-
pied for the benefit of the live stock,
thus:
Acres.
Permanent Meadow Land .......................75
Annual Hay Crop on Arabic Land.............50
Annual Root 90
US
And even Of the barley crop large
portion was used for fattening hogs
and poultry in the form of barley
meak
We give the above for the purpose
of showing the vast importance of
the feed crops in European hus-
bandry. By this plan the English
farmer pays rent to the amount of
$25 or $50 and yet makes a good
living in addition, living in a bet
ter house and enjoying more luxu-
ries than the average American
farmer on the same acreage.
While we can get unlimited sup
plies of new land the manure ques- |
ton does not enforce such an amount |
of live stock in. proportion to avail
able crops, but a generation more
will show this supply to be far
more limited, and then we must |
manure old farms instead of aban-
doning them for unreclaimed land, !
and then comes the necessity for a
large supply of live stock, and |
thence for an abundant acreage de-
voted to hay and roots.
Even now we believe that half of
the men who are rushing to the far
west for new land would do a better |
business keeping their old farms,
which they enormously imagine to |
be exhausted, and a first step to-
wards this is the study of our native |
grasses, and, at the head of them,
the Kentucky bluegrass, the queen |
of American grasses, which, accord
ing to Mr.. Killebrew, need by no
means belimited to the well known
bluegrass districts of our neighbour
ing State but will grow wherever
the limestone crops out; and wher-
ever the bluegrass is possibility, ]