THE HAY-FIELD AND ENGLISH HAY. 171 



ing value of a good average meadow hay with other fodder 

 articles at our disposal at the tiuie of the experiment. 



The successful production of most of our important 

 meadow and pasture grasses depends in a less degree on the 

 particular kind of soil than on a well-regulated supply of 

 moisture. 



Light sandy soils furnish good meadows and pastures 

 whenever the necessary amount of moisture and of plant 

 food is provided for during the entire growing season. A 

 deep loam, or clayish loam, is looked upon as the typical 

 grass land. Our best meadows are found located upon lands 

 containing either a liberal admixture of a fine clayish silt, 

 or are receiving periodically additions of that kind by over- 

 flow or otherwise. 



Deep plowing, and a good mechanical preparation of the 

 soil before seeding down, are most efficient treatments to 

 economize natural sources of moisture. The ground should, 

 however, be well settled before the seeds are imparted, — 

 the roots are better protected in that case than in a newly 

 stirred up soil ; rolling the ground after seeding does not 

 work as well upon a heavy moist soil. An excess of water, 

 as well as a high degree of dryness, changes the general 

 character of the growth upon grass lands. A wet condition 

 of lands favors the appearance of an inferior class of grasses, 

 and an exceptional state of dryness of the soil that of an 

 inferior class of herbaceous plants common to dry pastures. 

 These results become in the same degree more marked as 

 the undesirable conditions continue. 



Under-draining and irrigation are efficient means for the 

 protection against these serious influences, if practicable 

 under existing local conditions. 



In case neither of these remedies prove available on 

 account of unfavorable local circumstances, the adoption of 

 one or the other of the following modes of operation suggests 

 itself. Wet lands are quite frequently decidedly im- 

 proved for the production of grasses by an extensive system 

 of ditching, and in raising the level of the lands by cover- 

 ing them with a layer of light sandy soil. A periodical 

 serious dryness of the soil is ruinous to the majority of our 

 better grasses ; its serious influence can be somewhat mod- 



