MOWING AND SEEDING DOWN LANDS. 201 



ing fields ; that there is such a thing as mowing our lands too 

 close. And we reason it in this way : that there is a mutual 

 relation existing between the roots and leaves of the plants ; 

 they grow in conjunction ; the roots have their office to per- 

 form, the leaves have theirs ; and when you denude a plant of 

 its leaves, you have stopped this root-action ; you have given 

 it a check and injury from which it must suffer until new leaves 

 are developed to carry on the functions of the plant. Now, 

 then, we say, if we mow our grass-fields too close (and some 

 variety of grasses will bear closer cropping than others), the 

 point being, if we mow theru so as to take all their leaves 

 off, we have done a great injury to the plant, which we shall 

 feel in the crop of the succeeding year ; and therefore, accord- 

 ing to the character of the grasses on our fields, we should 

 mow them anywhere from two to five inches in height, rather 

 than try to get down so as to get the last joint, as farmers 

 say. 



We have said again, that it is bad policy to mow our lands 

 late in the season. While we think rowen is a good crop, 

 and it is well to have it in our barns ; while we do not object 

 to the cutting of a second crop ; yet under no circumstances 

 should this second crop be cut late in the season, but it should 

 be cut so early that there will be time for another crop to 

 grow, to act as a covering for the plant, a sort of protection 

 for it through the Avinter. This we have said. 



Again, we have said that lands designed for permanent 

 mowing, on the farm, once seeded down, once brought into 

 good condition, should remain without ever being touched by 

 the plough through all coming time. It is not good policy, 

 we have said, to plough and re-seed lands that are to be kept in 

 grass. We have said that, under certain circumstances, when 

 we seed down lands, we should sow a great variety of seed, 

 the ordinary practice being to sow but two kinds of grass- 

 seed, — clover and herdsgrass, — and that it is better to put 

 in not only these, but two kinds of clover, — the white and the 

 red, — and a certain quantity, perhaps, of the Alsike, and 

 some others. It is better to put in orchard-grass and blue- 

 grass when we seed down, rather than sow only one or two 

 kinds of seed. 



Now, in regard to our pasture-lands. The Board of Agri- 



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