15(5 



if cows would feed wholly upon it, which, usually, they will not, but prefer to 

 range far and wide, and crop the seedy heads of the endless variety of wild 

 plants which abound in the open country, and which furnishes them with nutri- 

 ment much better adapted to the secretion of fat than of milk. The consequence 

 is, that during the fall months, and season for laying down butter, the cows fail 

 of their milk, and what should be the mast profitable part of the year for the 

 dairy business is lost. 



The obvious remedy for this evil is, the cultivation of English grass for 

 purposes of pasturage. The advantages of such cultivation will be, that one acre 

 of good English grass will afford as much food in the course of the season, as 

 five or ten acres of wild grass, and enable cows to fill themselves without 

 working off" half the aliment they obtain in efforts to find it, and the feed will 

 continue fresh and good until Avinter sets in, and keep the cows in milk through 

 the season in wduch it can be turned to the best account. But here a difficulty 

 presents itself. The soil, in most localities, is poorly adapted to the production 

 of English grass. The soil of the open country is too loose and porous for the 

 ready production of a sod to shield it from the rays of the sun, and keep in the 

 moisture. But this difficulty will be overcome as the laud gets older, and manure 

 is applied, and the subsoil becomes mingled with the surface by deep ploughing. 

 It has often been observed that the clay found from two to four feet below the 

 surface, when thrown from excavations and spread upon the surface, will produce 

 a very rank growth of timothy grass, or red clover ; and I have seen wheat grow- 

 ing upon earth thrown from a depth of five or sii feet below the surface, which 

 appeared as strong and thrifty as that growing in the surface soil. These facts 

 illustrate, at once, the inexhaustible powers of the soil and the advantage of deep 

 ploughing, as the soil becomes worn, or when seeding becomes desirable; and 

 suggests the query w^hether, as seeding becomes necessary, any better dressing 

 could be applied to the loose soil of the prairie and burr oak lands, than the clay 

 which is found immediately below it; and also, whether deep ploughing, or a 

 dressing of clay, would not be advantageous to the wheat crop. But even with the 

 natural capacity of the surface soil for the production of grass by ordinary ma- 

 nagement, its cultivation cannot be a matter of indifference to the dairy interest. 



Fruit Trees. — It has been sufficiently demonstrated that the soil and climate 

 of this country are well adapted to the growth of all the vaiieties of fruit trees 

 common to the northern and middle States of the Union, with the exception, 

 perhaps, of the peach, which has generally failed from a peculiarity of the climate 

 and not of the soil. The tree thrives well during the growing season, but kills 

 down in the spring. The warm days which usually occur early in INIarch, starts 

 the sap prematurely, which, being frozen by subsequent frosts, burst.s the bark 

 and destroys the limbs, and fi-equently the entire truuk of the tree. This catas- 



