THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



123 



Three times I generally find to be sufficient. But 

 in thcbe low situations, I could never yet dis|)ense 

 with beds. Water ruirovvd I have luuml at>do- 

 lulely necessary to collfct the water, liom which 

 it is drawn otl hy means uf croejs drains. We 

 will now suppose that every thinj? is prepared as 

 Blated above, the water drawn ott, the land bed- 

 ded and in fine tilth: the next thing is to sow the 

 see'ds. The best lime lor this, as I think, is (rom 

 the middle olSeptember to the middle ol Oc(ober.4 

 For this purpose a careful hand ought to be em- 

 ployed, who will scatter the seeds evenly ami 

 equally over the whole surljjce, giving to each 

 spot its due proportion. A calm time must there- 

 lore be selected, (or il' there be much wind, m^ny 

 ofthe seeds will be waited away, and the even- 

 ness of the crop destroyed. I have already staled 

 that I prelier a mixture of timothy and herds-grass 

 seed, and I have given the proportions. Of this 

 mixture, I consider a h \lf bushel as suflicient on 

 good and well-prepared land, and if the land is 

 not good and well-prepared, even twenty bushels 

 nor any other quantity is enough. And whilst 

 upon the subject of sowing, allow me to say, thai 

 two quarts ol clover seed, or a bushel of orchard 

 grass or Peruvian oat, is about the proper quanti- 

 ty to the acre. I take it !'or granted, that no one 

 will understand me as advising to sow clover in 

 the fall. These seeds are usually sown with 

 small grain, with wheat or rye in February, or 

 with oats in early spring. The seeds being now 

 sown, other important parts ofthe work remain to 

 be done. The first is to pass a heavy roller over 

 the whole, then to clean out the water furrows and 

 the drains, and lastly, ii possible, to give your 

 meadow a top-dressing of good manure. 



But some one will say, if I am to have all this 

 trouble and expense, then the hay crop will be 

 like the Indian's gun, "cost more than it comes 

 to." Bat let us try this a little. 1 think ihe hay 

 crop the very cheapest we can raise. The outlay, 

 1 acknowledge, is very heavy ; but it ought to be 

 recollected that we are laying the /oundation not 

 for one crop only, but for at least three, and 6r>me- 

 times as many as six. But we will content our- 

 selves with the lowest number. Now to procure 

 these three crops, we plough and harrow three 

 times, and we roll an3 manure once. But in get- 

 ting three crops of wheat, how often do we have 

 to plough and harrow"? At least sfx times, and 

 each crop ought to have its rolling, ai^d would be 

 much better if it had its manuring. Three grass 

 crops, thereibre, are produced with one half the 

 labor and with one third the expense in manuring. 

 But let us try it in comparison with the corn crop. 

 And if any one gets a corn crop, including the 

 preparation of the land, with less than four 

 ploughings and two harrowings, besides oiher 

 work with the hoe and culiivatof, then he has a 

 mode of doing business of which I confess my- 

 self ignorant. To get three crops of corn, there- 

 fore, we must plough twelve times, and harrow 

 six times, besides doing other labor. Which, 

 then, is the most laborious crop 1 



But in a discussion of this kind, other things 

 are involved besides the actual atnount of labor ; 

 for if the increased labor produces a proportion- 

 able increase of profit, then things remain just 

 where they were. If I labor more I get more 

 for it ; and if I labor less, my profits are propor- 

 tionably curtailed. Let us test this matter also. 



An acre of land, such as 1 have described, will 

 ordinarily prockice 3000 lbs. of hay, oltener more 

 liian less, but we will fix on that as our standard. 

 An acre in wheal scarcely ever exceeds 20 bush- 

 els, generally fidls below it ; and an acre in corn 

 generally falls short of 8 barrels. But we will 

 fix on these two numbers as the standard. Hay 

 in my neighborhood and in the vicinity of market 

 towns generally is worth §1 per 100 lbs. ; wheat 

 in the same circumstances is worth ^1 15 per 

 bushel, and corn §3 per barrel. If either be re- 

 mote Irom market, the profit is diminished in 

 proportion to the expense of transportation. Ac- 

 cording to this, the acre in grass, with its three 

 cro|)s, will produce i^OO; the acre in wheat, with 

 its ihiee crops, will produce ^69 j and the acre 

 m corn $72. But here is an imporiant fact to 

 lake into the estimate, that the $69 lor wheat 

 has cost me twice ihe an^iount in labor, or the 

 $72 lOr corn four times the amount of fabor, as 

 the $90 tor hay did. The result is that less 

 labor has produced the most money. Ought any 

 one then to be alarmed in putting down his lands 

 in grass ? 



But there is another important item which 

 ought to cQme into this calculation: which crop, 

 coniinued for three years, is least injurious to 

 land I Now I will not assume, as many others 

 have done, that the cultivation of the grasses, so 

 lar Irom being injurious, is actually beneficial to 

 the land. I will admit that grass, with every tlaino* 

 else when the product is removed, is an ex- 

 hauster. But I believe that it has never yet en- 

 tered into any man's head that grass exhausts 

 as much, or any thing like as much, as corn or 

 wheat. If then grass, wiih one half or one fourth 

 the labor, will produce much more money, and at 

 the same lime exhaust the land much less, then, 

 as an act of sound economy, 1 must stick to the 

 grass. 



But I am tired of writing, and I doubt not Ihe 

 reader is tired also ; but I fijel that this treatise 

 would be unpardonahly incomplete were I to say 

 nothing as lo the proper time and mode of har- 

 vesting the grass crop. This is a raatterof much 

 more importance than farmers are generally 

 aware ol ; lor on it depends the flavor, the nutri- 

 ment, and therelore the whole value of the crop. 

 And here I shall perhaps advance some things 

 which maybe controverted by others. My ob- 

 servation may come in conflict with theirs. But 

 all I have to ask is, " give me a fair trial before you 

 hang me." 1 say then, in general, that our grasses 

 are allowed to stand too long in the fiekl before 

 they are cut, and that they are allowed to remain 

 there too long before they are carried to the mow. 

 The proper time to mow the clover is when the 

 blossoms begin to change from the red to the 

 brown stale. The stems and leaves have then 

 come to ILill maturity, containing all their sugary 

 and other nutriiious properties, and the after pro- 

 cess is merely employed in ripening the seed. 

 Unless harvested now, the stems lose their juices 

 and become liard, and the probability is, that in 

 curing, most ofthe blossoms and many ofthe 

 leaves will drop off, and instead ol" that sweet, 

 fragrant substance, which alone deserves the 

 name of clover hay, you will have only a parcel 

 of dry, black sticks. The other grasses ought all 

 to be mowed as soon as they have dropped iheir 

 bloom. Indeed, when the crop is a large one, 



