132 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTUEE. 



the second crop in the barn, where the manure can be better 

 preserved and where the cattle will be in no danger of crop- 

 ping too closely or of pulling up the grass by the roots or of 

 tramping into the ground. My mowing-fields are never fed 

 by any animals. 



I do not mean to mow later than the first of September ; that 

 gives time for another crop to come up suflScient to protect 

 the life of the grass through a freezing winter. It is well 

 known by observing men that the tops of plants cannot make 

 much growth unless the roots grow also, and that the roots 

 cannot increase without a corresponding growth of the tops. 

 Now, when a heavy field of grass is cut in midsummer, the 

 plants receive a shock, but with fiivoral)le weather for a few 

 days they are enabled to recover and put on a new growth ; 

 but when cattle are turned on to such a field they keep the 

 tops eaten down so closely that the roots cannot make a 

 strong, healthy growth, such as will carry them safely 

 through a severe winter. 



TOP-DRESSING. 



I practise top-dressing to some extent. If I top-dress at 

 all, it is while the grass is thick and vigorous, instead of wait- 

 ing till all the best varieties are exhausted. The best time 

 for applying manure, I believe — other things being equal — is 

 just after removing a crop. It then acts both as a mulch and 

 a fertilizer. The question of top-dressing or re-seeding will 

 probably remain an open one for some time yet, there are so 

 many attending circumstances to be taken into the account. 

 The cost of seed, the labor of ploughing and cultivating, the 

 destruction of the sward by droughts, winter-killing or grubs, 

 the impurity of the grass-seed in market that is full of foul 

 weeds, all have a bearing that makes it neoessarv for each one 

 to decide for himself, whether to top-dress or re-seed. 



AMOUNT OF HAY CUT. 



Of the gross amount of hay cut on my farm, I cannot give 

 as accurate an account as I would like to, as I have no rea- 

 sonable convenience for weighing the whole crop. I could 

 give the number of loads drawn in, but that would not give 

 others a very correct idea of the number of tons. I shall 



