114 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



sweep around each side. Then I usually roll it, to make it 

 a little more smooth. One of these levellers amounts to the 

 same thing as a roller, and does the work just as well, ex- 

 cept, if you have a piece of ground that has cracked open in 

 the spring, and you want to close it up, you cannot do it so 

 well with the leveller as you can with a roller. But there is 

 one advantage in a leveller : you can house it by setting it 

 up edgewise, whereas a roller takes up as much room as a 

 wagon. 



I want to sow my grass-seed some time between the 15th 

 of August and the 20th of September. Suppose, in the latter 

 part of August, that the top of the ground was extremely 

 dry, and you were all ready to sow : I would not sow it, be- 

 cause some portions of that ground would be moist enough 

 to sprout the seed ; and, if the dry weather held two or three 

 days after it was sprouted, it would kill it. You had better 

 wait until after a rain : you cannot get a good growth with- 

 out moisture. You can sow later than the 20th of September, 

 if the ground is exceedingly rich, or if there is a great deal 

 of manure put on ; but in the ordinary method of manuring, 

 and with the ordinary seasons, in which we are liable not to 

 have very much growing-weather after that time, it is better 

 not to sow it later. Therefore, if I am unable to complete 

 what I wish to do, so that I cannot seed early enough, I pre- 

 pare the ground as I have described, and seed it just before 

 winter closes. If I seed it before winter closes, I am very 

 careful to cover it with a brush-harrow, and put on neither 

 the roller nor the drag. 



Now, you might ask me why ? Because, if you roll a 

 piece of land just before winter, and it is not covered with 

 grass to protect it, or if you smooth it with a drag, you will 

 notice, that, the first wind that comes after it gets dry, the 

 dust is going off of that piece pretty lively. If you simply 

 cover it with a brush-harrow, which leaves a slightly rough 

 surface, the wind does not have that effect upon it, and it 

 jjoes through the winter better than it does if it is rolled. 

 That is the only reason why I do not roll it then ; and 

 usually there is no necessity, on my land, of rolling in the 

 spring, unless on one piece, where there is more or less clay 

 in the soil. If a good sod has not been formed, it is desira- 

 ble to run a roller over it early in the spring, to close up the 

 cracks in the ground. 



