MOW 



MOW 



279 



and the crops will rise with renew- 1 

 ed vigour. | 



Let farnfiers keep their nnowing ' 

 land so completely fenced, that | 

 cattle and swine may be effectually : 

 prevented from breaking in at any j 

 time of the year. I think every | 

 one must be sensible of the neces- j 

 sity of this. 



It is ridiculous to think of tak- 

 ing many crops of hay from any I 

 piece of upland, in uninterrupted j 

 succession, without affording it any 

 manure. For it does not imbibe j 

 the richness of the atmosphere so ' 

 plentifully as land in tillage. Grass j 

 land should, therefore, once in two j 

 or three years at least, have a ! 

 dressing of good rotten dung, or of 

 a compost suitable for the soil. 

 But the best way is to do it every 

 year. Autumn is the time for ap- 

 plying the manure, according to 

 long approved practice. But a 

 writer in the Georgical Essays re- 

 commends doing it immediately 

 after the first mowing, when a se- 

 cond crop is expected, which will 

 undoubtedly be the larger. When- 

 ever it is done, a bush harrow 

 should be drawn over the surface, 

 which will break the small lumps 

 remaining in the manure, and bring 

 it closer to the roots of the grass. 

 By this management, four or five 

 tons of hay may be the annual pro- 

 duce of an acre. Or if the sur- 

 face be not dunged, the crop should 

 be fed off once in three years; 

 that the excrements of the cattle 

 may recruit the soil. 



No cattle should, on any ac- 

 count, be turned into a mowing 

 ground in the spring. The mis- 

 thief they will do, will be ten times 



more than the advantage they 

 can get. In the fall, neat cattle 

 may get the aftermath : But sheep 

 and horses may be apt to bite sa 

 close as to injure some of the roots. 

 Therefore I think they should be 

 kept out, especially after the grass 

 comes to be short. Whatever 

 dung is dropped by the cattle, 

 should be carefully beat to pieces, 

 and spread, before winter, or early 

 in the spring. 



These lands should never be fed 

 so bare, but that some quantity of 

 fog may remain on them through 

 the winter. The snow presses it 

 down to the surface, where it rots ; 

 it holds the rain water from pass- 

 ing off suddenly ; and the virtue of 

 the rotten grass is carried into the 

 soil, where it nourishes the roots. 



Grass lands, with such a manage- 

 ment as is here recommended, 

 would produce crops surprisingly 

 large; especially in the northern 

 parts of New-England, which are 

 extremely natural to grass. The sur- 

 face would be covered early in the 

 spring with a fine verdure. The 

 crops would cover the ground so 

 soon as to prevent most of the ill 

 effect of drought in summer. It 

 would, by forming a close cover to 

 the soil, retain most of the mois- 

 ture that falls in dews and rains. 

 So that a dry summer would make 

 but little difference in the crop ; 

 and the rich lands would often 

 produce two crops in a year. 



On this plan of management, 

 much labour might be saved in hay 

 making ; and the grass might all 

 be cut in due season ; not only be- 

 cause the fanner has more leisure, 

 by having so much less mowing to 



