232 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



on most farms is practically impossible, or at least so difficult 

 and expensive that it is not often done. On our drier upland 

 knolls and plains the droughts of summer or the formation 

 and continuance of ice upon them in the winter, will kill out 

 many of the better grasses, in spite of all w^e can do, and it 

 would be unreasonable to expect such lands to continue to 

 improve indefinitely. In fact the crop will and does deterio- 

 rate, in the course of time, and grow less and less. 



We find, therefore, that so far from leaving such lands in 

 permanent grass, there is a growing inclination to subject them 

 to some cultivation, even more frequent than was formerly 

 practised, something that may be called the annual forage- 

 crop system, by which the whole farm, or rather all the grass- 

 land of the farm, is put under the plough as often as once in 

 three or four years. Indeed, I know farmers, in this room, 

 whose whole tillage-land has been under the plough within 

 three years,. and who have settled down upon this as the most 

 profitable system for them to pursue, especially since our sea- 

 sons of terrible drought and our hard, open winters have so 

 seriously afiected all our grass-lauds as to reduce their sup- 

 plies for winter-feeding. 



The process is to plough up deeply and thoroughly early in 

 the fall, let the land lie in the furrow till spring, put on the 

 harrow or the cultivator as often as once a week or ten days to 

 keep down the weeds, and give it a j^artial fallowing, till the 

 middle of June, and then sow on millet or Hungarian grass 

 with a light top-dressing and roll or bush in the seed and the 

 manure. By the tenth of August or thereabouts the crop 

 will be fit to cut, and so far as my observation has gone, 

 where the land is light and in fair condition, the yield has 

 been from two to three tons to the acre of a good quality of 

 winter forage. 



The land is ready then to be ploughed up again, the turf 

 sufficiently mellowed by frequent working to lay down to 

 grass with another light dressing to give the seed a rapid and 

 strong start, and if a sufficient variety of grass-seed is sown 

 the result will be a better crop of grass than it had borne for 

 some years previously. I have known grass-lands greatly 

 improved in this way and at little expense. The mere proc- 

 ess of cultivation, loosening and breaking up, has been a 



