INTRODUCTION. xiii 



grass I ever had. I sowed IJ acres with rye and 3| to grass seed 

 alone, iu both cases getting an excellent crop. I put on only a 

 peck each of red-top and herds-grass to the acre, and I put on as 

 much as that besides clover when I sow in the spring. This fall 

 I have seeded down about 20 acres. The reason I seed so much 

 is because the grass winter-killed on about 16 acres last winter. 

 I use a good deal of lime on my land. This fall I use 62 casks of 

 lime and 3200 lbs. plaster. Some who use this dressing do not put 

 enough on to make it pay. We can cheat one another, but we 

 cannot cheat mother earth. I tried some winter wheat this summer. 

 One dull day in haying I plowed up a couple of acres, went 30 

 miles and got my seed, and sowed wheat and grass seed together. 

 The wheat is up and looks finely. I have had good success in 

 raising oats. I have raised 400 bushels of oats on three acres, 

 and my crop has not generally fallen short of from 60 to 75 bushels 

 per acre. I generally sow two bushels to the acre. I have good 

 success in raising potatoes. When I have my ground fixed right, 

 I generally get from 300 to 400 bushels per acre. I think people 

 do not take so much pains to prepare and enrich their ground for 

 potatoes as they do for corn, and they pursue a wrong course. I 

 am satisfied we can raise potatoes here. It takes me three times 

 as long to cultivate my land as it does some of my neighbors to 

 cultivate theirs. I hold that land should be thoroughly pulver- 

 ized, and I think it pays to do it. I take pains to plow or dig 

 clear out to my fences, and do not allow any bushes in my field. 

 I have nearly 100 acres of this intervale land. When I lay it 

 down I mow it a few years, and then turn it out to pasture when 

 it will cut two or three tons of hay to the acre ; pasture it awhile 

 and then take it up again. By this plan it does not take so large 

 a piece of ground to pasture my cattle. I do not know whether 

 this is the best way, but it is the way I manage. Some people 

 say a pasture should be fed close, but I have the best success 

 when I have a good growth on my pasture land. In plowing to 

 lay down land, I do not plow so deep as when I plow for cultiva- 

 tion. I have an idea that there is a good deal of nourishment in 

 the roots. This fall I did not allow the men to plow over six 

 inches deep, and I then put on the Nishwitz harrow and cultivated 

 it down deeper, and that left the ground all mellow and the grass 

 roots mixed with the soil. In breaking up I want to go deeper 

 the second time than the first, as I hold to having the sod well 

 mixed with the soil. I have used a good deal of superphosphate 



