s conceal many of the stumps.
Whether it is practicable to establish good permanent pastures without
stumping and plowing the land is yet an unsolved problem. About every
Florida settlement where the town cattle graze, there is good pasture,
commonly carpet grass. You will find just this on the outskirts of
Jacksonville. Such pasturage has been established by heavy continuous
grazing, under which conditions the broom sedge and wire grass are
exterminated, while the creeping carpet grass comes in and persists. It
may be that the manure of the animals is also a factor, and there can
scarcely be a question that the trampling helps. As an example of this
kind occurs about nearly every Florida town, it would seem as if it
could be duplicated on cattle ranches. I have suggested to several
cattlemen that it is worth trying on a scale by three methods: (1)
Simply burning the native grass in winter; (2) burning, followed by
disking or harrowing; and (3) plowing among the stumps.
If possible, carpet grass seed should be scattered on each area, and in
all cases close grazing should be practiced. Unfortunately, carpet grass
seed cannot be secured commercially, except in small quantities at high
prices, but it is easy to cut the mature carpet grass in fall from a
pasture and cure the hay. The carpet grass can then be sown simply by
scattering the hay. Whether any of these schemes will work out
satisfactorily still remains to be determined.
As to Natal grass, I have already mentioned that this succeeds better on
the poorer and drier pine lands than any other grass yet introduced.
Thus far it has been exploited purely as a grass for market hay. On this
basis many hundred acres were planted in Lake County and elsewhere.
Grass culture purely for market hay is a very precarious proposition.
The proper agricultural economy is grass for live stock, selling only
the surplus to the market. Notwithstanding the very large acreage
planted to Natal, I have been quite unable to secure satisfactory data
as to its value for pasturage, measured in carrying capacity and
satisfactory gains. It seems to me, from the slender data I have been
able to secure, fairly probable that Natal will prove a valuable grass
for combined hay and pasture on the soils to which it is so well
adapted, but of course it can hardly be expected to yield enough to
justify the extravagant prices paid for land planted to Natal.
Prairie Lands.
On the prairies of Flor
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