MANAGEMENT OF MEADOWS AND PASTURES. 107 



will show their germs on the third or fourth day — other seeds will 

 take a little longer, but till they become coated with mould, there 

 is hope of their germination. As soon as the mould appears it is 

 decisive, and the seed that moulds is worthless." This plan is so 

 easy, and the injury arising from the sowing of defective seeds is 

 so great, that it ought never to be omitted by any farmer who 

 wishes to seed even a single acre of land. 



Having now got our young grass successfully started, the next 

 object is to provide for its future welfare, and our first inquiry 

 with this view must be to ascertain whether there is any stagnant 

 water in the soil. It is settled beyond all cavil by the united 

 testimony of both science and experience that the true meadow 

 grasses (such as are included in our fifth class) will not flourish in 

 the presence of stagnant water. Sow as many seeds and put on 

 as much manure as you will, they will all be lost. Nothing but 

 the aquatic grasses will flourish on a soil where water stands. 

 "Wherever these aquatic grasses are seen there is but one thing to 

 do and that is to underdrain. It is not' necessary to drain 

 meadows so thoroughly as plow lands, for nearly all the grasses 

 require moist soils, but if you would have a profitable meadow or 

 pasture you must free it from stagnant water. Good husbandry 

 requires that grass should be well started, and that provision 

 should be made for its future growth and increase ; yet this neces- 

 sity is overlooked by nineteen-twentieths of our farmers. There 

 are hundreds of thousands of acres of meadows which have never 

 had manure applied to them for a century nor have they been the 

 subjects of any ameliorating process whatever ; their annual burden 

 of grass has been removed, and this is all the care their owners have 

 bestowetl upon them. This ought not so to be. Depend upon it 

 there is a Nemesis that watches over agriculture as well as human 

 conduct, and every fraud the farmer practices on his lands will 

 assuredly be visited on his pocket. The necessity for the appli- 

 cation of nourishing manures is clearly shown by the amount of 

 matters removed from the soil by every successive crop. Each 

 ton of hay of average quality removes 140 lbs. of mineral matter 

 from the soil, and 26 lbs. of nitrogen equivalent to 31^ lbs. of 

 ammonia. The mineral matter includes 34 lbs. of potash, 15 lbs. 

 of lime, 8| lbs. of phosphoric acid, besides other ingredients. 



When we consider the immense loss of fertilizing materials which 

 ensues from a removal of successive crops, and that the soil is not 

 annually stirred up and brought into contact with the atmosphere, 



