Nilghiri Grass (Andropogon emersus). This is the only creeping grass of the genus Andropogon (which includes our broom sedges) that we have yet found. I secured it in the Nilghiri Hills of South India. It looks promising.
Kikuyu Grass (Pennisetum sp.). This is native to the highlands of Uganda, in British East Africa, and in South Africa has created great interest. It looks much like St. Augustine grass. At Biloxi, Miss., it has succeeded well. It looked very fine at Arlington, Va., but could not stand the winter. This grass is said to be very nutritious, and I believe that on the better soils of Florida it will prove a real acquisition.
I mention these new things to give you some idea of what we are doing. I might mention several others that look good to us, but it will be time to speak when we have tried them further. In brief, we are scouring the earth to find grasses and legumes to meet Florida's needs. We have faith that the grasses and legumes exist, if we only can find them.
Gentlemen, in closing I must say one thing more. Our country is at war—a war that will tax our energies and resources to the uttermost. No more dangerous idea can be entertained than to minimize the task, or to delude ourselves with the prospect of an early peace.
One important factor is food, especially meat and wheat. Only an unusually favorable season can produce for us as much wheat as last year. Our meat and forage supplies are low, because in times of food scarcity, grass crops are necessarily sacrificed. Gentlemen, you can do much to help increase the meat supply. In developing your ranches to increase your output, I want to urge as a patriotic duty that you increase your good pasturage and your winter feed supply as rapidly as you can. I could not urge this in peace times, because rapid development is never the most economical. But in this time of stress you cattlemen can help the nation most by increasing your output to the maximum. There is no other way for you to give to the nation that will count so much. I therefore urge that you brush aside all questions as to the economically best method of increasing pasturage and forage, and to devote all your capital and all your energy to doing this along any lines that are sure.
FLORIDA AS SEEN FROM A TEXAS STANDPOINT.
Address by W. N. Waddell of Fort Worth, Texas, before the Florida State Live Stock Association, January 9, 1918.
Mr. Waddell started to working cattle on the Texas ranges in 1875, and has been in the cattle business for himself since 1881.
He was chairman of the Live Stock Sanitary Commission of Texas for four years, and for a number of years has been the Texas representative of the Live Stock Exchange National Bank of Chicago, and of the Chicago Cattle Loan Company.