The leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1895-1905, 1901-12-11
FARMER AND PLANTER.
GRASS AND ITS CULTURE.
A Farm Product Upon which the
Southern Farmer Places Too
Little Value.

ahio1At1 VI
and potash mentioned above, are re-
moved from an acre of ground, annu-
ally for ten. fifteen, twenty or twen-
ty-fiVe or more years. it would take
no great stretch of the imagination
to enable one to answer above query
most decidedly and emphatically IN
the affirmative.
But without any guess work in the
amounts of nitrogen, phosphoric acid
and potash mentioned above, annually
for ten. fifteen, twenty or twenty-five
or more years, il would take no great
stretch of the imagination to enable
one to answer above query most de-
cidediy and emphatically in the af-
firmative.
But without any guess work in the
matter, we would refer the reader to
the simple facts in the case.
The universal experience of hay
raisers the country over, is that even
on the most fertile of soils, the yield
of grass. where no manure of fertil-
izers are applied, becomes annually,
slowly. but surely, less and less, until
the weary, tired and starving acres
refuse to yield a sufficient amount of
grass to justify running the mower
over it.
For lack of a sufficient quantity of
suitable nutrition, the more valuable
of the grasses die out and useless and
pernicious weeds usurp their place.
Many weeds seem to thrive on hun
ger, but this certainly can not be
said of any of the grasses. 1t is
great mistake. and one that many
otherwise good farmers have some
way fallen into. that grass needs no
manure. and that il is abundantly
able to take cars of itself. No more
fatal mistake was ever made. Grass
must have plenty of plant food in
some form, or il will certainly per-
ish of pure starvation. 1t may die
lingering death. and take more time
over it than some other plants, but
unless liberal quantity of plant food
is obtained by It from some source, II
gradually goes down hill. and the an
nual yield becomes less and less. until
it fails to pay TO run the mower over
it al all. As the grasses give out. as
stated above, useless and pernicious
weeds occupy the soil more and more
FertiliZe the soil, and the grasses and
even the clovers will take on a new
lease of life. pluck up fresh courage
and exterminate the weeds.
In spite of the fact that cotton,
corn and tobacco raisers spend the
greater part of their lives trying 70
kill grass. as if it was their worst
enemy, rightly handled, it is their
very best friend, and the most money
saving crop that can possibly be
raised by the general farmer; seeding
and feeding being all that is neces-
sarv to insure an annual and profit
able harvest.
Comparatively few farmers seem to
put a proper valuation on grass. 1t
keeps work stock of all kinds in
thriving condition; it furnishes US
with beef. mutton. kid. wool. and re-
duces tine cost of raising hog meat
at least one-half; it gives US our semi
daily supply of milk and butter. 1t
does all this, and more, TOO. spring
summer and fall, while in winter il
feeds the work stock and cattle of the
entire world. We feed our gardens
literally, because we expect TO derive
quite a considerable portion of our
sustenance therefrom. Our eyes are
wide open as TO the benefits accruing
from a good garden, but We seem 10
willingly and willfully close them
when it comes to a portion of the
farm that furnishes ten bites TO the
gardens one.
Is this rational, judicious and wise
policy?
To some extent we are writing this
for the benefit of the general farm
er, because we believe that in slight
ing the manurial requirements of his
grass crop, whether pasture or
meadow, hence causing untold suffer
ing on the members of the brute Gre
alton committed to his care and keep
ing, he is doing what he does through
ignorance. 1t is mainly for the BEN
eft of the poor, helpless, long-suffer
ing and patient brutes themselves that
we are writing.
Many a time we have seen patches
of ground fenced in and dignitied by
the appellation of pastures, that were
for months almost as bare of grass
as the center of public road, while
every bush and sapling therein was
browsed as high as the poor three
parts-starved animals could reach.
Were it necessary, or unavoida BILE,
for pastures to get in this fix, we
would have nothing 10 say; but we
know it is not. No crop on the farm
will respond more speedily, more sat
isfactorily, or more profitably, to lib
eral applications of plant food than
will the grass crop, let that same
grass crop be in permanent pasture
or permanent meadow.
Permanent pastures usually secure
sufficient supply of nitrogen from
the droppings of the stock and from
leguminous plants which form a part
of the sward to keep il in good con-
dition; but this is only where the
sward is sufficiently dense to keep
the soil shaded, and is not the case
wherever the soil is bare and naked
or partially so.
In order to induce luxuriant
growth of nutritious and tender
grass, fertilizer containing eight
per cent. phosphoric acid and eight
per cent. potash, at the rate of 500
pounds per acre, should be annually
added.
1t requires good soil and as much
care and preparation to make a good,
permanent pasture as for any other
crop, and when once well done, is cas-
lily becomes the most valuable, as well
as the most profitable portion of the
farm. The same is equally true of
permanent meadow. Well seeded and
literally and judiciously fed, his hay