22 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



be done by planting in the spring, with corn and potatoes, and 

 the common field crops. We should make a change in our 

 mode of farming ; and may it not be made, in some degree, by 

 seeding down our lands in the fall, and especially as we have 

 had two years of very dry weather, making our old fields almost 

 barren ? There are many fields, acres upon acres, in Fram- 

 ingham, that are covered with wormwood, and not a root of 

 grass apparently left. I have noticed the same thing existing 

 in different parts of the State. We cannot afford to wait for 

 all this land to be ploughed and planted and re-seeded according 

 to the usual process ; it takes too long ; too much of it would 

 be waste. We must therefore bring that land into grass in 

 some speedier way. 



Now, there are many acres that could be re-seeded this fall, 

 before the ground freezes up ; and perhaps that is the most 

 profitable way at the present time, to commence on the ground 

 by ploughing and re-seeding this fall, just as the ground freezes. 

 There is no doubt, however, that August is the proper time for 

 seeding our grass lands. That seems to be the time when 

 nature distributes her seeds, and I think grass seed succeeds 

 better when sown in August, than in any other month. I 

 should recommend seeding in August ; but to do that we must 

 hasten our haying, in order that we may prepare the manure 

 heap, attend to the ploughing, etc. ; and it is a great advantage 

 to the farmer to get his haying all out of the way, at least by 

 about the tenth of July. His meadows may be left a little 

 longer, but no English grass, in my judgment, should stand later 

 than the twelfth of July. This last year, in my section of the 

 State, the English grass that stood later than the tenth of July, 

 was not worth as much as that which was cut at that time. Now, 

 in fall seeding, it is essential that we should plough pretty deep. 

 Many farmers, for August seeding, plough shallow, manure, 

 harrow slightly, and sow the seed, and the first thing they see is 

 the grass starting up from the old roots ; the ground becomes 

 nubby, rough and uneven, and if the next season is dry, its yield 

 is very small and about run out. I think the ground should be 

 ploughed at least from seven to nine inches deep, and thoroughly 

 pulverized, before the manure or the seed is applied. And in 

 ploughing in August, if we cut our hay in good season, we plough 

 in quite a heavy grass crop, which, of course, is no disadvantage 



