GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 249 



seed is ripe, it will be known by the changed appearance of the heads of the grass. Care 

 should be taken to cut it before it is so ripe that it will easily shell out from the heads, as 

 much will thus be wasted. It should be cut when the dew is on, to prevent the loss of seed. 

 After partially drying, it can be arranged in the small sheaves which should be placed where 

 they can become perfectly cured, as it can remain unbound until wholly dry, but it will need 

 to be handled with the greatest care to prevent the seed shelling out, as it falls very easily. 

 It can be threshed with any implement used for threshing grain, and cleaned with a seed- 

 cleaner, or common fanning-mill with a fine screen. If the stalks are too green while in the 

 stack, the hay will heat or ferment, and the vitality of the seed will be liable to be thus 

 destroyed. This injury to the seed is not always apparent by a change in its color, conse 

 quently stale and worthless seed is often put into the market and sold for good. There is no 

 certainty in this respect, except to test a sample before sowing the whole, and if these germi 

 nate well, there is a probability that the seed is good. The stalks producing the seed are 

 woody and tough, yet by mixing with other food, and cutting, they may be utilized, but have 

 not sufficient nutriment to be fed alone. Horses will eat them in this manner better than 

 other stock. 



After sowing the seed, and exercising care to prevent the introduction of other varieties 

 not desired, it is a very easy matter to harvest a good crop of grass seed for several seasons, 

 by simply a liberal supply of top-dressing. Many farmers are indifferent to extra pains in 

 raising this product, and give it no more attention than the care necessary in harvesting it, 

 but it will well repay any farmer to take special pains to produce the best crop of grass pos 

 sible for this purpose, as the crop produced from such seed will be greatly superior to that 

 where no such pains are taken to secure the best results. The more luxuriant the crop, the 

 better the seed produced from it, being the general rule. 



Fall Grazing of Mowing Lands. The practice of turning the cattle on the mowing 

 lands to graze after the aftermath has been cut, and the grass given a little time for subse 

 quent growth, is very common, and although the testimony of nine farmers out of ten would 

 probably be, that this practice is injurious to the grsss crop of the following year, yet they 

 continue to do so, justifying the custom on the plea of necessity. This is especially true in 

 New England, and we believe it to be one of the main causes of the deterioration of the grass 

 crop there, the grass being often grazed so closely as to leave the roots exposed to the ex 

 treme cold of winter, which are thus frozen and killed ; besides, where the soil is moist the roots 

 are often pulled up by the grazing and an equal injury done in this way. while the tramp 

 ing hoofs of cattle upon the turf is an evil nearly as great. The roots need the protection of 

 the grass for warmth through the winter in order to secure an early and vigorous start in the 

 spring. Mowing lands are unquestionably better where never grazed, but when practiced, it 

 should be early in the autumn, to provide for an after-growth for root protection during the 

 winter, and to store up the elements of a thrifty growth in the following spring. Too close 

 feeding is injurious at any time and should never be permitted, as it will cause the lands to 

 deteriorate and the grass to run out in time. An experienced farmer in Massachusetts says: 

 &quot;It is now more than twenty years since I have allowed any kind of domestic animal to feed 

 upon our mown land, and my opinion previously has been fully confirmed by my experience. 

 It is a decided benefit to let the after -growth remain upon the land; it is a protection from 

 summer s drought and winter s cold. Some of my neighbor s are following my example. 

 And another: &quot; I sometimes feed off my after-grass. When I do feed it off, I take good 

 care to feed it early and leave a good growth to protect the roots of the grass from frost in 

 winter. I think it an injury to feed; mowings will last longer not to be fed at all, and the 

 land when broken up will produce a better crop of corn or potatoes than if fed.&quot; 



Mowing lands should never be pastured in the spring, as the soil is so damp then that 

 the roots of the grass are easily pulled up by the cattle, while their tramping hoofs are also 



