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.

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.

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.