FARMERS' REGISTER. 



S17 



■ As soon as the corn is shocked, the field is pre- 

 pared Ibr rye, which is immediately sown and har- 

 rowed in. Some, however, in the hope of gelling 

 more Ibrward winter and spring pasiure, and to lei 

 the rye get well rooted belore (rost heaves the 

 ground, sow while the corn is yet standmg and 

 plough in ; but by this process, the ridges, Ibrnied 

 in cultivating the corn crop, remain unleveled, 

 which, to say tlie least, is no agieeabh sight to the 

 eye ol" a neat liusbandman. The clover, I'roni the 

 seed spent the second year, will come up si)onta- 

 neously after the rye lias been led down ; but the 

 grazier will judge of the propriety and economy ol" 

 sowing other grass-seed, to come Ibrward with it. 

 And so go round and round again and again with 

 the same system of rotation ; and if this system ol' 

 husbandry does not yield large profits and at the 

 same time improve the soil every year, 1 will 

 never again deny the patriotism and good judg- 

 ment ol' those native KeiuucUians who remove to 

 the west [bv fresh lands, or even ol' those who go 

 to the south to establish cotton farms. 



But there is another branch of ihe grazing sys- 

 tem yet to be noticed. The successor to exhausted 

 fields, will most generally have to set the wood- 

 lands, attached to the farm, in blue gross; for lew 

 of those who go to " the 7!«;io counlry" lor frash 

 lands, were provident enough in this old state, to 

 clean up their woods and make pastures. Their 

 stock generally subsisted "in ihe range." Their 

 lean, bony, angular pointed cows weie browzing 

 the bushes with horribly loned bells depending by 

 a strap around their necks ; their sheep were at 

 large too, headed by a '* bell wether;" their hogs, 

 if ever you could come up to them in the woods, 

 while seeking " viast,^'' on discovering you, would 

 utter their peculiar '' hugh!" and off would go like 

 I'rightened deer; and ten to one, but you would see 

 some "bag of bones," somewhat in the shape of an 

 old mare, tinkling too her drowsy bell, at the head 

 of three or lour ragged "young thir^^s," commonly 

 called colts and yearlings, biting oii ihe buds of the 

 undergrowth. And did you never observe, ivir. 

 Editor, that this class of— not good Ikmierr for 1 

 can't call them so, but — vexersof a kind soil, are 

 the very men who rail out so against our paying a 

 little extra to get superior breeds of stock? Eul 

 there are lew, if any of this class, remaining in 

 the improved districts. Some are reposing beneath 

 the clods which they vex no more ; many more 

 have taken large bodies of land and the fever and 

 ague in the west, and the few who are still left, 

 have 7}arii'a% set their lands in grnss,^because 

 the new-fangled notions (f farming have desiroijed 

 all the range! 



But I am ofi'the track again. The preparation 

 necessary Ibr covering woodland with a close turf 

 of blue grass is, to cut out all the undergrowth and 

 trees of every kind, not wanted for fencing, fuel or 

 other economical uses. The leaves are raked up 

 and burnt with the useless wood, and then, in the 

 latter end of winter or very early in sprinjr, tii.^ 

 land is seeded with blue grass, li is a very delic le 

 plant when it first springs, and should not be grazed 

 lor a year, unless very vigorous, and not then till 

 the seeds have matured. We thus havea most 

 luxuriant coat of blue grass and it is theie lor ever 

 without fuither trouble. Tliere is no attention ne- 

 cessary to its preservation other than the exercise 

 of prudent care against overstocking ii and against 

 itirning ou it early in the spring bclbre it geia -a, 



good start. I do not know any country qh Ui« 

 globe in which, in an agricultural point of view, 

 the woodlands are so valuable as in Kentucky, 

 and certainly no rur.il sight can be so lovely as llmt 

 of a woodland blue grass pasture, where all the 

 unsightly and useless trees are removed and the 

 soil IS coated vvilli u fine close turl^ It is true that 

 woodland grass is not equal, in nutritious quality, 

 to that growing in open fields ; but still it is a pow- 

 erful auxiliary lo the resources of the grazier. I 

 have known wooulairl grass rented Ibr three to five 

 dollars an acre from May to December, and ihis is 

 more net profit than was probably realized from 

 cleared land by many of those whose system 

 impoverished themselves and their fields. But let 

 the intrinsic value of woodland grass be more or 

 less, it is so much clear gain over any other systeru 

 of husbandry. 



Nor is it the only valuable quality of blue grass 

 that it grows more luxurianily in woodland than 

 any other grass. Its superiority, as a rich and per- 

 manent grazing grass in the open fields, is equally 

 manilijst, though the value ofother grass is highly- 

 appreciated. Clover, though very luxuriant, is 

 valuable as a grazing grass, but, comparatively, a 

 short time. Salted, ii makes, with careful atten- 

 tion in harvesting, and il'noi injured by rains while 

 culling, a good hay; but probably its greatest value 

 r. s in its efiect of improving the soil by means oi" 

 its wonderful system ot' foliage, stem and root. — 

 limolhy is both valuable as a grazing grass, and 

 the best of our hay grasses. Catiie are very fond 

 of it when young and tender, but do not relish it 

 after. Herds grass or red top is the best ibr lovv^ 

 moist or wet land, but there is litlle of this descrip- 

 tion of land in the calcareous districts, it makes 

 a beauiilLiI hay; but, I believe, like timothy, is not a 

 good grazing grass vvhen a litlle old. Orchard 

 grass is very early in its appearance in the spring 

 — grows more rapidly than any other grass, and 

 of course recovers sooner after grazing. But a 

 serious objeclion lo it is, that it grows in tussocks, 

 that is, detached bunches, and the intervals are 

 never well filled up with any pereimial grass so as 

 to form a close covering, like blue grass, of'the en- 

 Lire soil. It is a very valuable grass, liKe limothyy 

 mixed with clover lo prevent hoove. Blue grasSy 

 though not quite so lorvvard in the spring as other 

 grasses, is on ihe whole, according to the judgment 

 of most of the graziers, far the most valuable lor 

 grazing. It is luxuriant, nutritious and durable; 

 it is a perennial, and will ultimately root out every 

 other grass, even the native while clover; it grows 

 more and more nutritious with advancing age; and 

 no other can come in comparison with it as win- 

 ter grass. It not only grows in the warm spells of 

 winter, but if the second growth of summer he 

 reserved for winter grazing, it is a most excellent, 

 and gratelul pasture to animals throughout the 

 whole of that drear period. An old patriarch gra- 

 zier told me, a year ago, ihai he had a number at' 

 brood mares, ten or twelve years old, ihat hail 

 never eaten a moulhlul of grain in their lives ; sub- 

 sisiin.- wholly upon blue grass, except when the 

 groi U was covered by deep snow, when hay was 

 given them, and he thought even this was not ab- 

 solutely necessary. His mares were large, and al- 

 ways fat. Another distinguished grazier, owning" 

 some 2,500 acres, lold me, a li',w weeks ago, that he 

 intended, when he grew old and the labor of super- 

 intending his lanu became burdensoine, to culii- 



