g board of agriculture. 



Cultivate a Vabiety of Grasses. 



Sowing grass seed is a modern practice, originated long 

 since the landing of the Pilgrims ; but not as yet has it dis- 

 covered the advantage to be gained by cultivating a greater 

 variety. The prevailing practice, which seems like a deter- 

 mined abandon of all except three, or four at most, is with- 

 out an obvious and even a specious reason for its existence. 

 The dictum of the poet, "Whatever is, is right," must have a 

 restricted acceptation in agriculture, when it disregards the 

 logic of facts. Often thirty different species of grasses are 

 found growing in a single sod, or from 600 to 1600 grass 

 plants to the square foot. Nearly 1800, by actual count, 

 have been found. From twelve to forty kinds of grass may 

 be found in almost any old field. During the summer of 

 1877, forty-three varieties were gathered in a forty-acre field 

 of mine and a neighbor's. 



A certain quantity of seed — which quantity varies with the 

 species — is required for a given quantity of land. The quan- 

 tity, the seed dose, may be too allopathic or too homccpathic. 

 Experiments made with oats and barley, show the smallest 

 yield of oats at one bushel, or five bushels per acre, and the 

 largest yield at two and two and one-half bushels. With 

 barley the smallest yield at one-half bushel, and five bushels 

 to the acre, and the best yield at two and one-half and three 

 bushels. The fault in the practice of most farmers is that 

 they seed too little, not too much. 



Every soil has a capacity for bearing a maximum num1)er 

 of grass plants of any one variety, and every species of grass 

 requires a certain amount of room to insure its full develop- 

 ment. Suppose eleven pounds of herds-grass to be the 

 maximum for an acre, and twenty pounds are sown, then 

 nine pounds are lost, and 9-20 of the acre left in unoccupied 

 interspaces. On the other hand, while that acre may not 

 have room for more than eleven pounds of herds-grass, it 

 may have a capacity for three times eleven pounds, provided 

 the mixture is composed of several varieties. This statement 



