PERMANENT PASTURES. 401 



blue and white clover ; and in the South, Bermuda; Be- 

 fore these are sown on gullied lands, the aim should 

 be to fill them by llie aid of the plough and scraper; 

 then to fertilize them before sowing the seed. Some 

 nurse crop, as rye, may be helpful in holding the soil 

 until the grasses get started. On steep side hills, it 

 may prove advantageous to strew litter or straw thinly 

 over the newly sown land. 



Gullies may frequently be prevented from washing 

 deeper by perseveringly throwing in them rubbish, such 

 as brush and cornstalks, for a time, to arrest the silt 

 and then by sowing in them, and along the sides such 

 soil-binding grasses as Russian brome in the North, 

 and Bermuda in the South. The tendency in these 

 will be to further arrest silt and to grow up through it, 

 thus raising the land in the ditch gradually to a higher 

 level. 



Renewing. When permanent pastures form a good 

 even sod, made up of a number of grasses, it is ques- 

 tionable if it should be disturbed with the plough. or 

 disk, especially in moist climates. Renewal, in such 

 instances, should rather be attempted through fertiliz- 

 ation. It may be advantageous sometimes to stir the 

 surface of blue grass pastures with the disk and to 

 add some seed of one, two or three varieties of clover. 

 The best time probably for doing this work, especially 

 on prairie soils, is the early spring, just when the frost 

 has come out far enough to admit of cutting down to 

 the required depth with the disks. When disked one 

 way, it may be profitable, in many instances, to disk 

 both ways, driving at an angle the second time. A few 



