. Annual report ... of the Board of Agriculture for the year ending June 30th ... *about twenty-five years ago, when a man could hoe hy hand, whencultivated out, two acres of corn daily ; now upon the same soil, withthe same cultivator used, the same willing hand as then could not hoeone-half acre a hay, if more than one-fourth, all on account of thisso-called witch grass. Some have pronounced it the vilest of weeds,u Devils Grass, etc.; others claiming for it high nutritive qualitiesfor hay—quick in its growth, tenacious of life, enduring all climatesand soils, overweighing all objections cha
. Annual report ... of the Board of Agriculture for the year ending June 30th ... *about twenty-five years ago, when a man could hoe hy hand, whencultivated out, two acres of corn daily ; now upon the same soil, withthe same cultivator used, the same willing hand as then could not hoeone-half acre a hay, if more than one-fourth, all on account of thisso-called witch grass. Some have pronounced it the vilest of weeds,u Devils Grass, etc.; others claiming for it high nutritive qualitiesfor hay—quick in its growth, tenacious of life, enduring all climatesand soils, overweighing all objections charged against it, it will years ago, and subsequent, in the discussions had in the Westminster farmers club, while some of the best farmers claimedit the salvation of Connecticut River farming, others present thoughtit would prove disastrous. For twenty-two years I have watched itwith a great desire to keep an honest account with this grass, and. Plate XIV. Setaria Germanica. Hungarian grass. Plate XV. Triticum Eepens. Couch grass, Quack grass. GRASS. 303 I make it a debtor to me. It retards cultivation; if it getsinto gravelly or stony soils, the farmer might as well surren-der. If he has low land, which overflows and he wishes tokeep to grass, there may be an advantage. It is not so disad-vantageous to a corn crop, except in extra labor in cultivation,but destructive to the cereal, and the tubers of potatoes will be bad-gered by its roots. It will even completely pass through them. Itmakes good horse and stock hay, but not good for milk. One goodthing may be said about it in these days of hired help ; if in the field,they must keep moving, or it will grow through their boots and tiethem to the ground. There is one way to bring it into subjection, and if it is not thus keptit will often subdue the farmer. It is a warfare to annihilate it, andprobably upon our feasible soils, when it gets in, it is not in the com-mon rotation
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectagriculture, bookyear
