The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-12-03
Grasses in East Mississippi.

Ely NJ b. HILLYARD, MOBILE, ALA.
G1asJ SLIssIssIppI mas MAD the stock
fever for some years in a small way, or
rather in a limited area, lin and about
StarkylIe, Oktibbeha Coz but it is spread
ing and LOwndes, Monroe, and NoXubee
are getting it. This disease q guess that's
the designation it would receive from the
old fogies) is generally marked by another,
kindred TO it, kind of corollary, the grass
fever, (nOt hay fever, this / am glad to say
is totally unknown, and l know it is not
because no hay is made to cause it, You
would be surprised to find how many
grasses the enthusiastic advance guard of
agricuturists have in their areas devoted to
grass raising.
In Kentucky most every body has blue
grass, Ct mean in the bluegrass regiOn.)
There Is very little timothy and consider
able clover, out of the country so termed.
In Indiana it is bluegrass mostly for pas
ture and timothy mostly for meadow. In
Ohio it IS mostly timothy for meadow, and
clover for pasture In Michigan it is most
ly clover for meadow particularly in the
sandy country, and same for pastures
Bluegrass seems to be the pasture grass in
Indiana and Kentucky. But, in East Mis-
sissippi, there is a march of mind. They
are ''the heirs of all the ages in the fore
most files of time" They can there show
larger collection ofgrasses on the same area,
will venture to say, than any country in
the United States. Let no one think | am
exaggeratng or ir0nical. ] mean to be en-
tirely veracious and | would never think
of Geriding so good a condition of affairs.
There are gentlemen who have red clover,
white clover, alfalfa, red top, orchard, blue
grass, meadow fescue, fall meadow, oat grass,
and | know not how many more on the
same farm.
Most of the above grasses they have on
the same sod that's not all They have
them combined with Lespedeza strata or
Japan clover, and Bermuda. Where can
you find that combination, North, East or
West?
1t was a most gladdening sight to me,
after travelling through Kentucky, Michi-
gan, Indiana, Ohio, and elsewhere and
seeing pastures burnt to death. and in
many places the ground denuded. to see
the bounteous pastures of bermuda and |
Japan clover, on which the stock were
revelIing, in East Mississippi. ! was never
so impressed with the value of these never |
falling grasses. The whole landscape was
green with them. They are Incompatible |
for summer | needn't tell their merits
they are well known now.
But, as Il matter of course, one may ex-
pect (who knows anything) to see the South .
a better grass country than the Worth or the |
West with the native grasses in summer of /
the former; but how about bluegrass and |
clover, meadow fescue, orchard, etc. ?
Well, Mr.. Editor, it wouldn't take much /
to make me say that those grasses are n
better summer pasture than at the North
and West. The best clover pasture seen by
us in a ride through Kentucky, Michigan
Ohio and Indiana, we feel almost like say
ing we saw at Starkville, East Mississippi.
The clover was sowed last winter, late, and /
has been pastured pretty hard all along 1t
has been dry, too, but that country has
so inches of rainfall per annum it can
Ho Il in Il Nv thaI
West We saw bluegrass in great mats
far better than any we saw, and with green
ieaYex sixteen to twenty-siX inches long
Meadow fescue and orchard grass sowed last
March were as green as a leek, and nearly
two feet high, and q marvel. Now when
one saw such a display Of grass sown last
March. at a dry time, on July 80, when /
Western States were burning dry, what /
wonder that he feels like calling them
summer grasses
All conversant with the South, or at least
East Mississippi, know that from December /
to middle May or June, clover, bluegrass, in |
fact, all the favOrite grasses, are superb; that |
they grow all winter and yield pasture so
that no grain is needed. But who eyer eX-
pected such displays from these grasses in
midsummer? Before we pass from the topic, /
we Want to say, that DR.. Ellet of Starkville, I
Miss, had some clover nearly 6 feet high it /
was the common red clover (Trifolium pra-
tense). No one need wonder that we can
make over 5000 pounds of hay per acre at
one moving Certainly we never saw such
a dense mat Of decayed stems as his field
shows. This way that they can have in
East Mississippi, in that maryelously fertile
soil of black prairie, of combining summer
and winter pasture on the same sod, is going
10 be great factor some day. Just now, L
when land is so cheap as it is, when you can
buy that superb land at from $40 to SIS per
acre, and some Just as good in the bottoms
for stock-raising st 90 per acre, it does
not make so much difference. But when
that country fills up with Western and Ken
lucky stock raisers, as it will in few years,
it will be wonderful thing to have both
summer and winter pasture on the same
sod. 1t will be great item in saving fenc-
ing and land.
Bermuda sod combined with Kentucky
blve-zrass, Clover, orchard, ETC., will answer
all the purpose. No meadow will be re-
quired, as there will be no need of hay for
feeding purposes on the farm. If one wants
to sell il at from SIS to $50 per ton in the
town, or to old fogies who make cotton and
buy solely from the West, that is another
thing. Then he can cut his S to 10 tons
during the season from johnson or Guinea
grass. We started to say something more
of stock. but we will leave it for some other
occasion. Let me say that yellow fever will
not spread in the prairie country. This is
a fact we'll known there. Time and again it
has been introduced by refugees, Gas it may
be anywhere) but no one has ever incurred
it. Not one instance has ever been known.
The rotten limestone with which the coun-
try is all underlaid seems to be most infal
lible preventive. This is fact worth re- :
Numbering, and is incontestible.