GRASSES AND CLOVER. 125 



it is required for pasture, seed with rye, as recommended iu 

 another chapter. If for hay, clean land should be selected and 

 put in order for seeding early in September, for the grass should 

 get a good start in the fall to enable it to endure the winter, 

 and also that it may get the start of weeds. It will pay to 

 top-dress with fine manure, if it is available, and, if not, with 

 bone-meal, which is a special manure for grass. I have found 

 that timothy does much better sown in fall than in spring, as 

 it roots deep enough to enable it to withstand drought, which, 

 if sown in spring, would be fatal to it. It is sometimes desira- 

 ble to reseed old pastures without plowing them or losing the 

 pasturing for a season, and I find this can be done by harrow- 

 ing until the surface is a little scarified and sowing in the fall. 

 If the land is quite bare, I would recommend rye to be sown 

 with the grass, as it will catch when sown on the surface if it 

 is slightly mellowed, and will not only protect the young grass, 

 but also furnish early feed. 



Bare spots in pastures not only give no income, but are 

 unsightly, and they should be top-dressed with fertilizers of 

 some kind, and re-seeded. 



I believe it wise to use the larger part of the manure made 

 on the farm with reference to its effect on the grass crop. 

 Where this can be done (as recommended in other chapters) so 

 as to secure the benefit of the manure for a grain crop, and at 

 the same time have it fertilize the grass, this is probably the 

 wisest use that can be made of it; but, when a grass-field is to 

 be plowed for corn, if manure can be had to top-dress it a year 

 beforehand, it will cause the roots to multiply in the soil and 

 the sward to thicken up, so as to furnish as great, or a greater, 

 amount of plant food for the corn, and give in addition a very 

 heavy grass crop. 



In 1883 I saw on the farm of a neighbor a good illustration 

 of the value of manure for grass. A field of ten and a half 

 acres was liberally top-dressed with good barn-yard manure, and 

 it produced at two cuttings fifty-six loads of hay. Eight of 

 these loads were weighed, and averaged twenty-one hundred 

 pounds to the load ; and, taking these as an average, the field 



