Note 70 — Chapter XLVII · A Cotton Plantation—Work, Workmen, Wages, Expenses and Returns.

An admirable pasture grass, flourishing only in warm climates and free from shade. It was first introduced into Louisiana as a protection for the levees, its thick mat of roots preventing the high water from washing away the base of the levee; but it spread rapidly over the adjacent cotton lands, and thus became one of the greatest pests to the planters, who find it almost impossible to exterminate it.