QUERIES AXD ANSWERS. 23 



103. Q. Why is it my new lawn sowed with lawn grass is full of weeds ? Lawn Grass. 

 A. From seeds of weeds, some of which may have been in the soil for 



many years. Every experienced gardener know^s that in new lawns weeds 

 always seem to take possession of the land. They should be pulled up 

 or mowed off. If the seed of the lawn grass is vital, patience will reward 

 the gardener. The weeds are only annual and will die during Winter 

 whilst the grass will live. 



104. Q. Why do some lawn grass mixtures develop an earlier effect Cheap Grass. 

 than others? 



A. Those which produce the earliest effect aregenerally combinations of 

 the cheaper grasses, prominent among which is Herds grass. 



105. Q. Should hay be cut before it is perfectly ripe? Hay. 

 A. Yes, because in the unripe forage there is considerable sugary 



matter most valuable in cattle feeding, which as the plants ripen changes 

 first into starch and then into woody fibre. 



106. Q. What is your experience with Scarlet clover? Scarlet 

 A. Our field experience with Scarlet or Crimson clover, as it is variously Clover. 



called, dates back to 1871, when we first grew it as a field crop on our 

 Virginia farm. Many years before that we grew it experimentally in our 

 trial grounds. Its value is : 



(1). For pasturage in Winter and early Spring. If not pastured too 

 closely it will afterwards make a crop for cutting for green feeding, later 

 on for hay, or still later for plowing under. 



(2). For cutting green in Arpril and May as food for horses or cows ; 

 soiling as it is termed. It will be found fully four to five weeks earlier 

 than Ked clover, consequently it admits of very early cutting. The New 

 Jersey Experimental Station estimates that one acre in April and May 

 will feed ten cows for twenty days. In New Jersey fifteen tons of green 

 stuff has been cut to the acre. Its composition and digestibility is better 

 than Red clover, but of course animals must not be permitted to overfeed. 



(3). For hay. In dry hay it gives a product of one to two tons to the 

 acre of a quality similar to Red clover. The stems, when the crop is in 

 bloom, vary from two to five feet long according to soil. 



(4). For green manuring. This may be done in April or May and is its 

 chief merit because of its wonderful development by that date both above 

 and below ground. Like Red clover it roots to great depths, even as 

 much as six feet, and gathers the spread-out potash of the soil, drawing 

 it up and concentrating it near the surface, where subsequent and less 

 deeply-rooting crops can get it. 



The New Jersey Experimental Station estimates its value in potash 

 and nitrogen at thirty dollars to the acre. Of course this is a laboratory 

 test and a book-maker's calculation, but the field experience of hundreds 

 of observant farmers seems to sustain the estimate as the result of plow- 

 ing it under. In Jersey, Maryland and Delaware, where it is best 

 known, the results have been phenomenal. It will not flourish on wet 

 land, but it will grow on poor, sandy soil or on thin, worn-out lands, but Soil. 



