CULTIVATED MOWING-LANDS. Ill 



is not the best land I have, because I have to take a large 

 number of acres of the best land on my place to grow some- 

 thing else ; but nevertheless it is what I call reasonably 

 good grassland. Now, how should it be managed? I do 

 not like to seed any grassland down in the spring : there- 

 fore, if I have any crop on a piece of land that I can get off 

 early in the season, I plough that, and seed it with grass ; or, 

 if it is already in sod, then I prefer to plough it some time 

 early in August, and after ploughing, turning it over care- 

 fully, I put on about thirty-five dollars' worth of manure to 

 the acre. When I say thirty-five dollars' worth of manure, 

 you will ask me how many cords ? I cannot tell you exactly ; 

 but it means on my place about thirty-five one-horse cart- 

 loads of manure, such as we gather from the barn-cellar, in 

 the pig-pen, and the yard. There is more or less loam in 

 it, or some absorbent ; but there is no more absorbent used 

 in the manure on my place than is necessary to take up the 

 liquids. I do not believe in carting your farm into the barn- 

 cellar, and imagining that you have made it into manure, and 

 then carting it out again : I do not believe that is economy 

 or policy. So it gets thirty -five one-horse cartloads of ma- 

 nure to the acre, or that is the intention, — it might fall short 

 one or two loads, or it might overrun one or two loads, bat 

 that is the intention, — that it shall have thirty-five one-horse 

 cartloads to the acre. After it is spread upon the land — if 

 you do not use one of those wagons which spreads as it goes 

 along, which I have not used yet, although some of them do 

 the work well — after it is spread, we go over that piece of 

 ground each way with a disk harrow. We prefer that to the 

 others ; because, where there are no stones or other obstruc- 

 tions, it makes a piece of ground most like an old field. 



Question. Do you put it in heaps before you spread it? 

 or do you spread it from the cart? 



Capt. Moore. We spread it usually from heaps, because 

 it is more expeditious. If you are going to put on fifteen or 

 twenty loads to the acre, you had better spread it from the 

 cart ; but if you put on enough, so that you can see it all over 

 the field, you can spread it reasonably well from heaps by 

 looking after the men a little. They will leave a little at 

 the bottom of the heap, if you do not look after them. If 

 they do, you must make some remarks to them to the point. 



