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The manner in which he put the grass in, was to cut down 

 the saplings, and deaden all useless timber. From 50 to 100 

 trees might be left to the acre. The common error was to 

 be too careful of the timber. He himself, for many years, 

 erred in this matter. On one occasion he employed a Dutch- 

 man to deaden from fifteen to twenty acres for him during 

 his absence from home. From a misunderstanding of his di- 

 rections, this man had deadened nearly all the timber, and 

 when he returned home, he thought he was ruined. But by 

 that act, he had gained several hundred dollars. Kentuckians 

 had informed him that estimating their land at 20 dollars per 

 acre, they make annually from their blue grass pasture, the 

 interest, taxes, and 10 dollars per acre. We place too high a 

 value on wood, supposing that it will be valuable at some 

 future day. But his experience satisfied him that this was a 

 great error. For twenty years, wood has advanced but little 

 in value, because the use of stoves have decreased so greatly 

 the amount consumed. 



After deadening the trees, he burned the leaves off late in 

 the fall, and in the spring following sowed the seed. He 

 usually bought it cut up in the cutting box, and of this sowed 

 from two to two and a half bushels to the acre. He sowed 

 timothy with it, because it formed a pasture sooner, and was 

 soon rooted out by the blue grass. The first year he did not 

 pasture it, but the second year he turned cattle upon it, to 

 keep down the sprouts. Hereafter, he purposed not to cut 

 down the saplings until after he had sown the seed. 



He maintained that it was to the interest of every farmer 

 to keep more cattle ; that we were much deficient in this kind 

 of stock, and that to keep them, we must have more blue 

 grass. There was no other kind of grass that so well fitted 

 the land for subsequent tillage, for the sod afforded the best 

 kind of nutriment to corn or wheat. To the question that 

 had been asked, how it could best be destroyed, his own ex- 

 perience was that if turned over in the spring after it had 



