GRASS CULTURE. 161 



until the next day, then pitch it over lightlj^ and in the course of 

 two or three hours put it into the barn, and tread it as solidly as you 

 can. If you have three tons to the acre of clover or herds-grass, 

 put it up and let it remain two or three days in dry weather, and 

 if there are two days of moist weather, then re-lay it — no spread- 

 ing and no shaking — then put it in, and tread it down so as to 

 exclude the air. 



A motion was then adopted to discuss the preparation of the 

 soil for a grass crop. 



Sec. GooDALE. I would be glad, in this connection, to make an 

 inquiry. It is well known that in Maine we have large breadths 

 of land, naturally well adapted to grass, and decidedly better for 

 grass than for tillage. In the rotation usually practiced much of 

 this land is plowed, and planted with corn or potatoes for a year 

 or two and then sown with grain and grass seeds. This one year 

 or two years of culture involves a great amount of labor, espe- 

 cially on the heavier class of soils. To go over as much surface 

 in this way as is usually found on farms in so Iowa condition as to 

 demand some improving treatment also involves a demand for 

 more manure than is at hand. So much as is under the plow and 

 hoe should be liberally manured in order to get remunerating 

 crops, and if we plow no more than can be sufficiently manured, 

 there usually remains considerable surface which yields only a 

 light burden of hay. In some sections the practice obtains of 

 sowing grass seeds upon the inverted turf without any intervening 

 hoed crops, or any culture beyond pulverizing the surface soil, 

 and sometimes spreading manure, if any can be furnished, or if n© 

 barnyard manure, a dressing of ashes, leached or unleached, or 

 plaster. Sometimes nothing is applied, and in any case the re- 

 liance is chiefly upon the sod, which, as it decays, furnishes food 

 for the young plants. Consequently much better success attends 

 this practice if adopted before the land has become poor than if it 

 is badly run down. 



If any one will estimate the amount of vegetable matter con- 

 tained in an acre of turf and the results he might reasonably ex- 

 pect from its use in preparing a compost, it will be apparent that 

 the plant food thus placed at the disposal of the new grass crop, ig 

 very considerable in addition to what may be rendered available 

 through natural agencies from the freshly exposed soil. The lead- 

 ing idea of this practice is to depend largely upon rotting sod with 

 11 



