Part 5

Another grass that is likely to be very valuable on the prairies, and, indeed, on the flatwoods and better uplands, is paspalum dilatatum, native to Argentina. This is perhaps the best of the paspalums, and it is now widespread in the Southern States. Unfortunately, with us the seeds are largely destroyed by a fungus, but good commercial seed is obtainable in quantity from Australia.

Muck Lands.

On the muck lands the problem of pasturage is easy. At least four grasses, namely, Para, Carib, Rhodes and Bermuda, especially Giant Bermuda, yield wonderfully. The enormous area of muck lands in Florida, especially in the Everglades, can, it would seem, be utilized only with the aid of livestock. While there may be some fairly difficult problems to solve in handling live stock on muck soils, especially in the wet season, there can be little doubt that grass and live stock will insure the permanency of these lands. Under continuous cultivation there is a constant shrinkage in muck soils, but with grass and live stock this is nearly, if not quite, counterbalanced.

Carib grass on muck soils is, from limited data, superior to Para grass both in yield and quality. On other types of soil Para will outyield Carib. Rhodes grass does wonderfully on muck soil, and, indeed, on most rich soils. Giant Bermuda is far coarser and more vigorous than ordinary Bermuda. It will succeed wherever ordinary Bermuda will grow, and, in addition, seems much better able to withstand flooding.

Temporary or annual pasture crops are mainly important in connection with swine raising. Various systems of such crops have been devised to furnish successive pastures. Florida has a long list of such crops that can be utilized. Among them are oats, rye, rape, sorghum, peanuts, cow peas, chufas, sweet potatoes, corn and velvet beans. Under certain conditions the cattleman may have to utilize one or more of these crops, but corn and velvet beans is the one that is the most important.

The story of the velvet bean is really one of the romances of agriculture. Introduced into Florida about 1875 from some unknown source, it first attracted attention as a forage about 1890. Until 1914 it was but little grown outside of Florida. In 1915 the crop was certainly less than 1,000,000 acres. In 1916 it had increased to 2,500,000, and in 1917 to about 6,000,000 acres. The explanation of this remarkable increase was the finding of earlier "sports." Three of these appeared independently--one in Alabama, two in Georgia. These early varieties immensely increased the area over which the velvet bean can be grown, so that now it embraces practically all of the cotton belt. These early sports of the old Florida are most grown, but the Chinese velvet bean, introduced by the Department, and the hybrids developed by the Florida Experiment Station, are important. In spite of vigorous search, the native home of the Florida velvet bean yet remains unknown, but it is probably in the Indo-Malayan region of Southern Asia.

The importance of the velvet bean to the live stock industry now developing in the South can scarcely be over-estimated. Grown with corn, it increases the corn crop year after year, and besides furnishes a large amount of nutritious feed to be eaten by the animals when the grass pasture season is over. It reduces greatly the cost of finishing of beef animals for market. This year the velvet bean has been no small factor in helping out the great shortage of foodstuffs, quantities of them having been shipped to Texas. Finally, it has resulted in a new industry for the South, namely, the manufacture of velvet bean meal, which has already won for itself a large demand.

Hay Plants.

The problem of producing hay in Florida is made particularly difficult by frequent rains, except in the fall of the year. The bulk of the hay now produced is from the crab grass that volunteers in cultivated fields. In recent years much Natal hay has been grown for market. Para grass hay is of good quality, and Rhodes grass of very fine quality. Other hays are made from cow peas, cow peas and sorghum mixed, Mexican clover, beggar-weed, oats, millet, etc.

The subject of hay, however, is vital only to the city market. To the live stock man it is of minor importance, as silage furnishes so satisfactory a substitute.

Ensilage Crops.

Corn is, of course, the standard crop for ensilage, and its relative importance in Florida is not far different from that in other States.

Under certain conditions sorghums will yield greater tonnage than corn, and the resulting silage is but slightly inferior.

Florida possesses, in addition, a unique silage plant in Japanese sugar cane. The perennial nature of this plant and its high yielding capacity make it a cheap fodder to grow. It may be utilized as green feed, as silage, as dry fodder, or for pasture. Your own experiment station has published the best information we have on this forage. As a feed for dairy cows there can be no question of its high value, either green or as silage. There still seems to be question, however, as to the relative value of Japanese cane silage as compared with corn silage. In Southern Florida the cane stays green all winter, as a rule, so that there is no necessity for ensiling it for winter feed. It may well prove, however, that a supply of Japanese cane silage will prove good insurance against periods of shortage even in South Florida.

You may have noted that all the pasture plants I have mentioned are grasses. Very unfortunately we have not as yet any good perennial pasture legume adapted to Florida. I say "unfortunately" because, as is well known, the true grasses are nutritious in proportion to the fertility of the land. That is, the better the land the more nutritious the pasture. But with legumes no such relations exist, because legumes are not dependent on the soil for their nitrogen supply.

While we have no satisfactory perennial pasture legume, we have one summer annual, lespedeza, that helps to some extent in North Florida. There are also two winter annuals that reproduce themselves in which I have considerable confidence, namely, burr clover and narrow-leaf vetch. I believe that on many of the better pasture soils, especially in North Florida, that these legumes can be established and that they will re-seed themselves year after year. Of course due care must be taken to secure inoculation, preferably by the soil method.

The Outlook for New Forages.

What the future may hold in store for us in the way of new forages does not assist at the present time, but it is worth considering. It is well to bear in mind that the agriculture of the North, with the single important exception of corn, is mainly a direct inheritance from European agriculture. Substitute root crops for corn and you have in essence the European practice. Southern agriculture, on the contrary, is almost purely an American development--cotton, corn, tobacco, sweet potatoes, from the American Indian; cow peas, Rhodes grass, Natal grass and sorghum from South Africa; soy beans, lespedeza, Japanese cane from Japan; carpet grass and Para grass from the West Indies; Bermuda from India; velvet beans from Southern Asia.

Northern forage plants have been pretty thoroughly studied both in Europe and America, because European conditions are fairly like those of our Northern States. But there yet remains hosts of grasses and legumes adapted to sub-tropical climates concerning which we know practically nothing.

Out of very numerous grasses and legumes at present under test are several that possess promise, and these I shall discuss briefly.

Kudzu.

Kudzu is not particularly new, but it seems to me destined to a much greater importance than at present. It is the only perennial forage legume that has in any sense made good in Florida. It is much better adapted to clayey soils than to sandy soils, but it also succeeds remarkably well on the limestone soils about Miami. On the better sandy soils it would also seem to be valuable, but on the poorer sandy soils and poorly drained lands it is doubtful if it has a place. On clay soils at Arlington Farm, Va., we have consistently gotten two cuttings, totaling five tons of hay per acre--double what we can get from cow peas or soy beans. I believe kudzu is entitled to a fair trial by every Florida cattleman.

Napier Grass.

You have doubtless seen some of the numerous references recently in Florida papers to "Japanese bamboo grass" or "Carter's grass" as grown about Arcadia. These names rest upon a misconception. The grass is a native of South Africa, properly known as Napier grass, or Pennisetum macrostachyum, introduced by the Department in 1913. This is a perennial much like Japanese cane, and in our tests is found hardy as far north as Charleston. It does well on rather poor soil and yields heavy crops. In chemical analysis it is richer than corn in protein and carbohydrates, but also contains three times as much fiber. It is this high fiber content or woody character that makes me dubious about its silage value, in which opinion Professor Rolfs concurs. When two or three feet high it is greedily eaten by animals, and so may be a pasturage possibility. As a green feed crop it could be cut three or more times each season, when three or four feet high, and I am sure will prove a very valuable forage for the man with one or two cows. Whether it is a crop for the stockman is still doubtful.

In 1916 we introduced a very similar species, Pennisetum merkeri, which is perhaps a little superior, though it is hard to tell the two apart.

Metake.

The name "Japanese bamboo grass" leads me to mention a true Japanese bamboo, the metake. This is a bamboo that spreads by rootstocks and forms dense thickets ten to fifteen feet high, much like cane brake, and, like our native cane, a valuable winter pasture plant. Mr. P. K. Yonge has grown it with marked success about twenty miles north of Pensacola. It seems to me a valuable plant to furnish a supply of pasturage in winter, when pasturage is practically gone. It is worthy of careful trial on all well-drained Florida soils.

Tripsacum Laxum.