Florida: An Ideal Cattle State

by Florida State Live Stock Association

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.

Last year we secured from Guatemala a new perennial grass which, if it proves winter hardy, will, I am certain, be of enormous value to South Florida. This grass grows much like teosinte, but is stouter and very much more leafy. The stem is tender, sweet and juicy, and all the leaves remain green. It is an ideal silage plant. So far as I am aware, our trial at Miami is the first time this grass has ever been cultivated. The few live stock men who have seen it went into ecstasies. It may prove valuable, however, only for frostless regions.

Creeping Pasture Grasses.

At the present time we have under trial five creeping pasture grasses, more or less like Bermuda in a general way. You are, of course, aware that a pasture grass to be valuable should be able to spread naturally and must be able to hold the ground. Naturally it takes time to determine all these facts. The five grasses I refer to are as follows:

Blue Couch (Digitaria didactyla). This is much like Bermuda, but produces abundant good seed. For lawns and pastures it promises to be about equally as valuable as Bermuda.

Manilla Grass (Osterdamia matrella). This is especially adapted to rather moist sandy lands. It grows very dense, and where it thrives should be valuable.

Lovi-lovi (Chrysopogon aciculatus). This furnishes much pasturage in India, the Philippines, and South China. The seeds are very abundant, and each sticks into the clothing like a pin. But about Hongkong it is used generally as a lawn grass. It is well adapted to dry sandy soils. If it proves well adapted to Florida we can, I think, chance its becoming a nuisance, because if it does thrive it will give much pasture.