22 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



as yet very imperfectly understood. The time and manner of 

 sowing, — the kind of seed and amount per acre, — the time of 

 cutting and mode of curing, — the effect of fall feeding, — the 

 most economical kind of top-dressing, and the time of applying 

 it, are all disputed questions. Probably no rule can be laid 

 down which will be equally applicable to each individual case. 



There is no time of year which will invariably turn out to be 

 the best for sowing. But I believe the opinion of the best farm- 

 ers seems to be that, on the whole, there is less risk of failure if 

 sown in early fall or early spring, and with no other crop. Too 

 much care cannot be taken to secure a good " catch," because 

 the future prosperity of the crop depends largely on a thorough 

 stocking of the ground with plants. It is a "penny wise and 

 pound foolish" policy to run the risk of injuring the young grass 

 for the purpose of obtaining a little larger income the first sea- 

 son. 



If land is moist and thoroughly stocked, it may be kept in 

 good condition for several years by a judicious top-dressing. 

 But my own experience is that top-dressing cannot be applied to 

 high lands with so good a result. Manage as we may, in from 

 three to five years the crop grows less, the wild grass begins to 

 creep in, and from five to eight years the land needs turning 

 over and re-seeding. 



Having started with the idea that grass must be the principal 

 crop, a regular system of culture should be adopted. A portion 

 of the "bound out" land should be ploughed up every year, 

 and as near as may be a like part of the land annually laid down 

 with grass ; and we ought to proportion the quantity ploughed 

 each season so that the whole tillage land can be cultivated by 

 the time the grass becomes so much bound out as to need 

 re-seeding. And here let me suggest that many of us would 

 obtain a larger product at a less expense, if the labor and manure 

 were concentrated on a smaller space of ground. I do not be- 

 lieve with some that what is called "high farming" is the great 

 panacea for all the "ills that agricultural flesh is heir to." It 

 would have been absurd to recommend the "old country" sys- 

 tem of agriculture to the Pilgrim Fathers, with all the wilder- 

 ness before them, just as it would now be absurd to advise a 

 settler in a valley of the Rocky Mountains to adopt the high- 

 culture system of Japan or Belgium. When land is plenty and 



