360 



" Should meadows be found too soft and miry to admit of 

 being ploughed in the summer or autumn, and the expense of 

 turning with the hoe be thought too great, I would recommend 

 ploughing in the spring, when the frost is out to the depth of 

 three or four inches, carting on the manure and then sowing or 

 planting at a convenient and proper season. 



" The most important parts of the business in reclaiming 

 these meadows, consist in taking off all the surplus water by 

 judicious draining, and in thoroughly exterminating the natural 

 herbage and grass. This being effected, we have our rich bot- 

 toms equally as productive as the deep alluvions of the west, 

 and obtained at a cost and sacrifice very much less. 



" In answer to your inquiry whether I have turned over green- 

 sward and sowed it directly down to grass without manuring, 

 I reply that I have not ; my course has been to top-dress the 

 inverted sward with compost. With reference to the ultimate 

 improvement of the soil, I plough deep, which brings to the 

 surface a considerable portion of the poor subsoil, requiring to 

 be mixed with manure to render it productive. That land may 

 be greatly benefited by turning over the greensward after the 

 crop of hay is taken off, and immediately sowed to grass with- 

 out manure, I have no question ; but for present profit, as well 

 as with a view to future improvement, it may be well to dress 

 with manure. My best crops of grass are, however, from fields 

 which have been planted, the season of turning over the green- 

 sward, with corn or roots, and sowing to grass the next spring 

 without disturbing the inverted sward. I have found that when 

 grass seed is sowed upon the sward without cultivating it for 

 one season, the poorer kinds of natural grasses spring up be- 

 tween the furrow slices, and in the course of a year or two en- 

 tirely supplant the better kinds of cultivated grasses. This is 

 a great object with farmers who raise hay for the market. The 

 quantity grown upon an acre, without putting on a hoed crop 

 for the first season after turning over, may be quite as great, 

 but of inferior quality." 



5. The next account which I shall give is that of Abel Moore, 



