The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1903-09-16

by nearly all thoroughly progressive
and successful farmers.
BLESSING TO iii SOUTH.
With the exception of the limestone
region Of Kentucky and Tennessee the
Southland from Virginia to Texas has
lacked u grass which forms q turf sim
liar to that furnished by kentucky
blue glass. Not but that there are
grasses of nan kinds in the South,
Just as over the Western plains there
are grasses, but In the South they fail
to form q close knit turf, SO pleasing
to the eye and SO helpful to Mother Ma
earth in its best form for use by man
and beast. Nor has the absence Of a
persistent sod grass given any particu-
lar anxiety TO the Southern planter.
Cottou-grOwing means the %cleanest of
culture. The Southern planter has
been narrowed and ruined for the most
part in the one absorbing effort to
grow cotton. He Las impoverished
himself because with but a single crop
return each year for all his efforts there
year for mules, fertilizers and feeding
stufs. The pasture lands Of the North
have largely contributed 10 furnish the
animals TO cultivate the cotton fields
and the beef and pork to feed the
Southern population. Tho city of At
lanta alone receives over ST, 000, 900
worth otmeats annually from the North
and West.
GRADUAL CHANGE.
a change, however, is gradually COM
ing over the Southern country through
the introduction of a plant whose early
history is more or less shrouded in
mystery. The Bermuda grass has
gained a foothOld over limited areas
throughout almost the whole South.
This humble denizen Of the field propa;
gates itself and spreads much as does
the strawberry plant, the aerial stems
bending to the ground and taking root
every few inches. The plants so made
enlarge rapidly until meeting their
neighbors a sod is formed. a single
plant will reach outward in all direc-
tions a half dozen feet in O year or
two. Bermuda grass does not produce
seed over much of the South. 1t is
spread by planting bits of tho grass in
checks q few feet each way, each sprig
gaining a foothold here and there until
the field is covered with q close knit,
dense sod.
MARVELLOUS EFFECTS.
The effects of Bermuda grass are
marvellous. Over. much OF the South
ern area there is q great tendency of
the soil to wash. In billy regions one
can SEQ sometimes gullies long enough
and deep enough actually to conceal a
great building or a railroad freight
train were 1t to be dropped within
these gashes. The humble Bermuda
grass, patiently and persistently creep
ing over the surface, reaches down into
these gullies, traps a little of the NOV
Ing earth and holds it in place. Climb.
ing on top of this 1t repeats the pro-
cess, without the aid of man or helped
a little by him, until the gully is COM
pletely filled and the surface of the
field appears once more. Bermuda
grass on rich lands will yield q ton or
more Of excellent hay per acre, though
it is a pasture grass rather than hay
plant, 1t is persistent on the poorest
of lands. Everywhere it yields pasture
L., crnn,icinn. non,, I.1s1t -
would think from observing the num-
Der Of cattle on q Bermuda pasture
field that 1t gives better returns than
our boosted blue grass of regions far
thor North.
We hear repeatedly of the great pos
sibiIities of the "New South and how
the people are awaking to live stock
husbandry and weakening their hold
on universal cotton-growing. In Ber-
muda grass the South has the greatest
single factor ever given it toward work
ing out its agricultural salvation. Con-
tiuuous cotton cultivation means ruin
to the land. Even the expensive use
of fertilizers only lengthens the period
of disaster. Animal husbandry and
mixed farming are the key to improved
agriculture in the South. The seem.
ingly insignificant Bermuda grass
plant together with the Japan clover
are two OF the most potent factors tc-
ward uplifting the South that have
ever come to that region of really
great agricultural possibilities. Will
the Southern planter put aside his
foolish dread of grasses and abolish
from his mind forever the theory that
only by growing more and more cotton
can he reach financial successP