The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-05
Gl.ass IN the soutIl.

There Was an OlQ notion, Whlcn IS
still to some extent common among
Northern farmers, that grass does not
thrive in the South. Travellers
through the one-crop cotton country
from the North are shocked at the
scarcity of grass, and think that the
reason is that it will not thrive there,
when in fact the Southern cotton
farmer has for generations been using
every effort to kill the grass that
grows so freely without seeding. The
census reports for the last ten years
show that the State of North Carolina
has grown more, hay per acre than the
State of Iowa, and yet Iowa grows a
million tons for very hundred thous-
and that North Carolina grows, and
hay is worth about one-third as much
| in Iowa as in North Carolina. North
| Carolina grows more per acre than
Iowa, not because her lands are richer.
for they are not but because of the
| greater rainfall and longer season that
admits of more crops. More than half
century ago the late Edmund Ruffin,
of Virginia, wrote a book on Eastern
North Carolina, in which he said that
| that section was destined to be the
greatest stock country on the Atlantic
coast, because of the wonderful pro-
| fusion of natice grasses. And from
4
| been using every effort to kill grass
| to grow cotton, when the grass and
stock would have enabled them to
grow cotton more cheaply and profita-
| bly,. II is true that different grasses
thrive IN the South from those the
| Northern farmer has been accustomed
| to but all the same they are fully as
valuable The wonderful luxuriance,
OH good Land, OF the crab grass, which
| is but a nuisance i'm the North, as it
grows in the South would he a revela-
| ton to farmers from the North. The
southern crab grass. cut at the proper
istage, is just as good. pound for pound
as the best timothy, and 1t grows with
out seeding on well MANFRED land. Last
summer our associate, Mr.. Greiner,
visited US just after a. rainy season
and he must have been astonished to
see the way in which our usually clean
garden was enveloped in grass after
the early crops, for it had for some
time been impossible to do anything
but let the grass grow, on account Of
the continual rains. But our driving
| horse here, in February, is still feeding
On the hay made on that garden. we
do not have II there as a rule. aud try
not TO have it. but in some places the
crop of hay is as valuable as anything
| else would be. ON the moist and rich
lands of the trucking section il is a
common practice, after the early truck
crops have been sent North To level
the ground and let the crab grow
sometimes aided by sowing of cow
peas. which are soon cnveloped by the
luNurant grass and a crop OF two tons
or more per acre is made after the
same acre has made hundreds of dol
lars worth OF truck. Then as pasture
In summer. the South has Bermuda, a
hot weather grass which grows all the
rankcr for heat which browns the blue
grass Of the North, An Ohio man
who l.; now breeding Angus cattle on
q large scale in the Piedmont section
OF North Caroline. said at farmers
meeting, that he had been accustomed
at home to blue grass, but that he
found that here ne had better summer
pasture than in the blue grass section
of Ohio, from the natural growth OF
Japan clover, which is at its best when
the blue grass fails nthe heat. All
this goes TO show that the neglect OF
live stock so common in the cotton
country. IS incEcusablc. The South
crn farmer can grow grass and lc-
gumes better than other sections. and
f the low price Of cotton teaches him
the value of grass and stock it will be
a blessing to him. The moral of This
u.s. plant less cotton and grow more per
acre, while making money out of grass
and cattle. Grow hay and get more
money from it than from cotton. In
short farm and quit mere planting Of
pptfon