FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 229 



should also give plenty of milk, in order that the Colts have 

 a good first Summer's growth. A further and very essen- 

 tial requisite is, that they should be sure in being got with 

 Foal every year, in order that the Owner may not be disap- 

 pointed in his expectations of profit 



Good breeding Mares are profitable ; but those not pos- 

 sessing the above qualities had better be kept for some 

 other use. Pastures which are wet, and bear coarse 

 grasses, are usually applied with more advantage to keep- 

 ing breeding Mures than to any other purpose. 



MARLE. See MANURES. 



MEADOWS. All mowing-lands are properly meadows; 

 but, when we speak of these in general, we mean low moist 

 grounds, which in their natural state are best fited for the 

 production of grass. 



Many pieces of land of this description, which bear no- 

 thing but coarse wild grass, might be made the best of 

 lands by hollow-draining, and manuring with sand or other 

 proper manure. This will render them fit for the plough, 

 and well suited for the production of the largest crops of 

 grass. Three tons of hay to the acre, beside Fall-pasturing, 

 or perhaps a second crop, may be had from such pieces 

 of land, after being thus improved. Such land would then 

 bie worth two hundred dollars an acre ; while, perhaps, in 

 its natural state it would not be worth thirty. 



Farmers should study their own ease, pleasure, and pro- 

 fit, by filing a small piece of meadow so as to yield them a 

 sufficiency of hay. An acre, at two mowings, can be made 

 to yield four tons of hay, and at this rate ten acres would 

 yield sufficient for a hundred-acre farm. The greater ease, . 

 and saving of expense, in gathering forty tons of hay from 

 ten acres of fine smooth meadow, instead of perhaps twenty- 

 five acres of rough meadow, ought of itself to be a sufficient 

 inducement for the Farmer to improve a part of his mea- 

 dows, so as to answer in place of the whole. 



Meadows may be pastured in the Fall, without much in- 

 jury ; but not closely. The after-growth of grass should 

 never be too shortly eaten, but a part should be left to 

 cover the roots during Winter. Good meadows are often 

 spoiled by close feeding in the Fall ; and in addition to this 

 many Farmers practise feeding them in the Spring, until 

 such time as the upland pastures have grown. 



By these means the meadow is poached, and the roots of 

 the grass torn to pieces, in such manner that not more 

 than one-halt of the crop is to be expected, that might be 

 obtained, by pasturing moderately in the Fall, and none in 

 the Spring, 



