IMPROVEMENT OF GRASS CROP. 191 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE GRASS CROP. 



By Erastus Lermond, Member for Knox County. 

 [Read at a Farmers' Institute held at Rockland.] 



This subject does not receive the attention and investigation which 

 its importance demands. The hay crop is much more valuable than 

 an}' other which we grow, and one on which the success of our otlier 

 crops mainly depends. As valuable as this crop is, it is left to follow 

 others as a matter of course, without special care or preparation for 

 its growth or continuance. 



Our grain and hoed crops, our horses, cattle, sheep, and their 

 various products, all depend either directl}' or indirectly upon the 

 grass ci'op, and there are also large shipments of hay from many 

 sections of the State, and 3'et, upon the area under cultivation, we 

 have not developed half of its productive capacity. 



Our soil and climate are both favorable for growing grass ; still, 

 we fail to raise desirable crops on fields which are well adapted to 

 the purpose. If we do not bring the yield up to a proper standard 

 under favorable conditions, the cause must be improper cultivation. 

 There are two prevailing customs which tend to dwarf our opera- 

 tions, and which ai'e so closely connected that one in a measure 

 necessitates the other. They are deep plowing, and the practice of 

 planting land two or more years in succession. 



Deeply plowed land is nature's order reversed, which seems to be 

 fatal to a grass crop, as it brings to the surface a heav}'^, sour soil, 

 nearl}' devoid of vegetable matter, and thei'efore unfit for plant 

 growth, and it also buries the most fertile part below the reach of 

 the general mass of the roots, and therefore requires more time and 

 manure to prepare it for a crop. It is observable where rough land 

 has been plowed that the places where the knolls had been are very 

 unproductive. These places contrast so i)lainly with the land around 

 them, that they illustrate very forcibly the injurious effects of deep 

 plowing ; for a piece of deeply plowed land will show the same 

 effects over the whole piece, which characterize the patches where 

 the knolls had been. 



