204 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 



5 AND FORAGE PLANTS. ^ fi , /cv o 



GENERAL TREATMENT OF GRASS LANDS. 



The importance of having the ground well tilled and thor- 

 oughly prepared by liberal manuring before committing the 

 seed to it, is too apparent to need remark. When the seed is 

 sown, it is the common practice to harrow it in, either with an 

 iron tooth, or a bush or brush harrow, or both, and those who 

 adopt a more careful culture follow these operations with a 

 thorough rolling, which compresses the soil and usually causes 

 an earlier germination of the seed. The importance of this 

 last operation, that of rolling, is too often overlooked. By ref- 

 erence to table XV., the importance of covering at the proper 

 depth is also apparent, since it will be seen that a large pro- 

 portion of the seeds germinated with a very slight covering. 



But if one thing more than another may be said to lie at the 

 foundation of all real improvement of grass lands, or lands 

 under a course of rotation, it is a proper system of drainage. 

 Especially is this important for low, wet lands, since it not only 

 frees them from superfluous water, thus making them more sus- 

 ceptible of tillage in early spring, but actually increases their 

 temperature several degrees, in some cases as much as from 

 eight to ten, and rarely less than from two to four, and admits 

 the air to circulate more freely around the roots of the plants. 

 The aquatic grasses require large and constant supplies of 

 moisture, and when the soil is changed by drainage, the more 

 valuable species of grass may be introduced and cultivated in it. 

 But one of the most important questions which the farmer of 

 New England has to meet, is the proper treatment of his pas- 

 ture lands. Many of our old pastures have been stocked hard 

 time out of mind, and the grasses in them have been literally 

 starved out a.id grow thin of necessity, while, as the finer and 

 nutritious gra-^^cs disappear, nature very kindly covers up the 

 nakedness of the soil with moss, as an evidence of the effect, 

 and not the cause of poverty. They are said to be " worn " or 

 " run out." Many of them are grown over with bushes and 

 briars and other equally worthless pests, till they carry but one 

 animal to four or five acres, and often require twice that amount 



