754 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



No. 12 



ON GRASS, AND GRAZING, ON ARABLE LANDS. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Brownsville. February, 1838. 



Dear Sir: — A ciny of leisure entihles me to re- 

 deem niy promise of making ;i communicuiion to 

 your Reffiiter on the sui)ierl of frrasse.s. A very 

 superficial observer must be convinced, tiiat ilie 

 destruction of our land, dreadful as it is, has been 

 greatly retarded by tlie natural grasses which 

 our country i roduces. The cro| -grass has, by iis 

 strong roots and vigorous growth and heavy pro- 

 duction, arrested in no small detrree the destruc- 

 tion which shallow ploughing and imperlect culti- 

 vation has been spreadins over the land. Even 

 broom-straw and sedge have done much to pre- 

 vent thills from getting worse; and hut lor tlie 

 fact that all of our indigenous £rras.ves, except fireen 

 Gward and one or two varieties of swamp grass, 

 are mere annuals, the good done would be much 

 more extensive, even willi the most inferior. I 

 think much has been improperly ascribed to <rra- 

 zing, in the account of bad management and de- 

 structive aijencies. It is true, that land not sown 

 with artificial grasses, (particularly as those indi- 

 genous do not make pasture until ihe middle of 

 May or isl of June.) and jjrazed with a heavy 

 Ftock li'om the 1st of April, poached in wet wea- 

 ther, and kept naked and exposed to tlie sun, will 

 become poor and unproiluctive. i>ul this results 

 not so much from ixrazing, asli^om Ireadinof. The 

 grass was not there to be eaten ofl: the injury 

 arose not li-om crrazm'j. but an absurd and (ruitless 

 attempt to graze. The poor cow is as much ex- 

 hausted by a fruitless search fur (bod, as the land is 

 by the treading. In our planiingcounlry, it would 

 be amusing, were it not too serious a suliject to be 

 laughed at, to see a slocl< of cattle returnins" at night 

 in the spring from a budding expeditinn. The stock 

 of winterfood, composed ofstraw, stalks and slmcks, 

 is exhausted. The buds are putting ou' a little, and 

 the cattle are belled and turned out toshifi for them- 

 selves. A few of the strongest reach home in the 

 evening; the rest are to be found reposing at various 

 distances from the pen, as fatirrue and an almost 

 fruitless search for food, have exhausted then). It 

 is thus that some of our planters lose about cattle 

 enough in the winter to furnish thorn in a supply 

 of very inferior leather from their skins. Cows on 

 the lift, and cows in the mire, in March and April, 

 are nothing new in a plantinor ct^untry. The rea- 

 son for this is. that planters have been engajred in 

 clearing forest lands and have made no meadows. 

 They rely on the offal of the grain crop to support 

 the stock of cattle. They are a mere save-all, and 

 accounted clear gains, and make but little of the 

 reliance for profit. 



This state of things was better sui^tained when 

 the country was fresh, and the amount of oflid 

 from the grain crops very large. A decliiu'- in pro- 

 ductiveness leaves less for the cattle to eiinsume. 

 and it is necessary to make provision t!)r thcii 

 wants. I atn satisfied that there is no improve- 

 ment without a full stock of cattle. That grazing 

 properly and even lieavily at the right time, and 

 in the proper manner, is, so far fi'om being inju- 

 rious, beneficial to land, and promotive of its pro- 

 ductiveness. Ever}'' farmer should keep just as | 

 many eaitle as he can keep weil, and graze them i 

 on hig best lands. I know lands winch have been I 

 cultivated mi llie clover and enclosing cysteni. until 



they will bring but little else than weeds and bri- 

 ers. A crop of corn is certainly destroyed by the 

 myriads of insects and worms bred in and inhabit- 

 ing the soil; and when fallowed, weeds overpower 

 the wheat. Treading on land, well covered and 

 guarded wiih a turf or a heavy lay of clover, is ad- 

 vantageous to the succeeding crop. It gives tlie 

 land the requisite degree ol closeness, and destroys 

 ^ many of tlie insects and worms winch would 

 I otherwise prevent the establishment of the crop, 

 i Besides, the iniproved slock, the increase of milk 

 I and bulier, as well as beelj are to be esiimated in 

 I the account of comlbrt and profit on the linni; and 

 j the lands are belter than those left to the natural 

 j grasses, lor pasture and lor cover. 



An evidence that consian', and even heavy 

 igrazin'T, does not of necessitj- im];overish land, is 

 j to be Ibund by observing the common about every 

 I town, villaire, or other public place. All of the 

 I neighboring stock graze on it; and if it is kept a 

 common for thirt}^ years, ii will be seen to become 

 better and richer, and irradually exchange its 

 grasses from the most inferior to ureen sward, 

 which is ihe best. Caltle slioulii be fed unlil the 

 first of Mav, and then turned on a herds' grass 

 pasture. They may be turned on the clover about 

 the twentieth of May, and pern'ilted after this to 

 fflean the harvest fields; after which they may be 

 turned on the newly-mown meadows, and other 

 pasiure, natitral and ariificial. Rye sown in a'^u- 

 guston ilie corn land, or early sown u'heat (or pas- 

 ture, will keep colts, calves, ewes and lambs, early 

 in the spring. But the thing (!)r which I contend 

 and wish to estab'ish as a maxim is, that the hest 

 use to be made of irrass, is to have it eaten. You 

 can never persuade nten to sow grass merely as 

 an improver. They n)ust have the immediate 

 profit, or they will not sow it; and I say, use the 

 grass, improve Ihe stock, and whilst you fiitten 

 your land, let your land fatten you. Every man 

 who will sow clover, timothy, or herds' grass, 

 even though his land were not rapidly improved, 

 will be fully compensated by the increase of do- 

 mestic comforts, as well as beef and butter as arii- 

 cles for market, and the excellent economy of rais- 

 inir his own horses for the use of his estate. Could 

 this impression become jreneral, it would do much 

 to obviate the objeciions urged against the purchase 

 of trrass seeds, and the general introduction ol arti- 

 ficial grasses, and the consequent restoration of 

 our country. It would cause our people to be con- 

 tented here to live well on their farms, and not 

 emigrate to the west, where by a most distressing 

 self-dt-nial, and surrender ol'all comfort, the acqui- 

 silion of wealih is attributed to a superiority in the 

 country; the fact beiiiir, however, well established, 

 that such rigorous and unbending parsimony and 

 industry would make men rich here or there. 



A. W. Vt:^ABLE. 



KXPICIUMENTS ON THK CORN CROP. 



To the Editor of tlie. ranniTs' Register. 



Coggin''s Point, JTebrvary, 1S3S. 



PenT)it me to report to you a statement of a few 

 experiments, made last season on corn; which, if 

 not unportant; may at least prove interesting to 

 soiT)e of your numerous readers. 



Experiment 1st. When planting corn, a piece of 

 rich ground was selected, containing 1428 square, 

 yards, on which corn was planted 2 feet 9 inches 



