404 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



July 10, 1829. 



COL. PICKERING'S ADDRESS. 



Concluded from page 396. 



6. If my recollection be coi-rect, the Trustees of 

 the State Society of Agriculture, have rei)eatedly 

 offered preniiuius for the best experiments to as- 

 certain the most eligible season for laying lands 

 down to grass. Without having made any experi- 

 ments expressly for that purpose, I will mention 

 some facts which may contribute to settle the 

 question. 



When I purchased a farm in Pennsylvania, at 

 the time before mentioned, it was deficient in hay. 

 Some acres of the bottom land were in tillage ; 

 but there being no crop on the ground, it was 

 ploughed, harrowed, and sowed with herd's grass 

 (there called Timothy) and clover seeds, about the 

 15th or 20th of September. The seeds were well 

 put in by an old experienced farmer. The next 

 summer 1 had a full and clean crop of excellent 

 liay. But here-and-there was a very small strip 

 entirely destitute of |rass plants ; and in their 

 place was a full crop of weeds ; a stronger wind 

 now and then preventing the hay seeds reaching 

 their destined cast. But throughout the rest of 

 the ground, the herd's grassy and clover having 

 attained to some strength in autumn, had full pos- 

 session of the ground ; and renewing their growth 

 in the spring, before the seeds of annual weeds 

 had time to vegetate, kept that possession com- 

 |)letely, and produced a clean crop of hay. 



I will now mention the constant and successful 

 jnacticc of Capt. Ichabod Nichols, of Salem, who 

 lias made a very productive farm among the rocky 

 hills and valleys of the land on the Salem Turnpike, 

 immediately westward of the town. Having dug 

 u)) and cleared it of the moveable rocks and 

 stones, he ploughed and planted piece after piece, 

 ■with Indian corn and potatoes; and as soon as 

 the natural growths were subdued, laid the .same 

 down with herds grass ; ahvays sowing the seed 

 in autumn ; and invariably getting clean and large 

 crops of hay the next summer. Sometimes he 

 .sowed the grass seed so late that it did not ger- 

 minate until the spring ; but being duly deposited, 

 it was ready to start with the first warmth of the 

 .season, before the germination of the seeds of 

 weeds ; and when the ground would be too wet 

 to touch it with the plough. It is only thirteen 

 years since Mr Nichols began to cultivate this 

 l-md ; and in the present very productive year 

 for hay, he has cut upwards of ninety tons. It is 

 true that he has possessed an advantage within 

 the reach of very few farmers — an ample supply 

 of manure from stables in Salem ; in addition to 

 thnt made on the farm by his four working oxen, 

 a bull, a horse, and thirty-five milch cows ; all the 

 hay and other fodder being consumed on the 

 fawn. It is a milk farm for supplying inhabitants 

 of Salem. The grounds having received the ma- 

 nure with the tillage crops, it was, of course, thor- 

 oughly incorporated ; and his purchased manure 

 had so much clover seed mingled with it that he 

 found it was not necessary to sov/ any with his 

 lierds grass. His constant practice of introducing 

 his niaimre with his tillage crops, corresponds with 

 the ideas I have formerly suggested ; to wit, — 

 that upland grounds in grass for mowing should 

 never receive top dressing of dung — because a 

 large (perhaps the greater) p.-.rt of its fertilising 

 elements would evaporate and be lost in the air, 

 and that such top dressings should be confined to 

 ireist groimds — too moist to be broken up by the 



plough, after having been once subdued and well 

 laid down. 



The general practice, however, from time im- 

 memorial, has been to sow grass seeds in the 

 spring, with barley, or other small grain ; and if 

 the preceding tillage crops have brought the 

 ground into a clean condition, the practice is 

 known to be commonly successful ; especially 

 with clover, a plant whose tap root penetrates to a 

 considerable depth, and thus secures it against the 

 effects of the harvest sun of July, upon losing the 

 shelter of the ^rain crop. But herds grass and 

 other fibrous rooted grass plants, with very slen- 

 der blades, not unfrequently perish. On my farm 

 in Pennsylvania, one year, herds grass seed was 

 sown with oats, of which there was a gpodoiop ; 

 and the grass had taken well ; hut upon harvest- 

 ing the oats, the tetider grass plants, exposed to 

 the burning sun of July, were all destroyed. The 

 like disaster, I presume is sometimes experienced 

 here, a degree and a half farther north. 



I am therefore inclined to think, that all spring 

 grain had better be sown by itself; and that after 

 harvest, the stubble and weeds — constituting in 

 fact a light coat of manure, should be ploughed 

 in, and the grass seed then introduced. This ma- 

 nuring, I am satisfied, woidd amply compensate 

 for the expense of the extra ploughing. It would 

 be desirable that this operation sliould take place 

 before the weeds growing among the stubble ripen 

 their seeds. 



The ease with which the seed of herds grass is 

 saved, and its cheapness when purchased, togeth- 

 er with the good quality of the hay, have led to 

 its general cultivation : but every farmer knows, 

 that unless the ground be rich and moist, it yields 

 no grass for a fell pasture ; while other grasses 

 quickly throw up a second crop. 



There is another grass in our country wMrb in 

 some parts of it is cultivated to great advantage. 

 It makes good hay — e<iual I believe to herds 

 jjrass — and like spire grass, springs again as soon 

 as the first crop is taken off. And the seed, it ap- 

 pears to me, is saved with as nuich ease as the 

 seed of herds grass. It is four or five years since 

 I introduced it on my fitrm ; and its present occu- 

 pant esteems it highly. I recommend it to the 

 farmers of the county ; and that it be sown by it- 

 self, without any clover seed : for as the clover 

 fails after the second year, naked spaces are 

 thereby left ; and then the grass grows in tufts, 

 instead of completely covering the ground. Or- 

 chard grass seed is at present dear ; but when 

 generally cultivated, it might become as cheap as 

 the seed of herds grass. 



A roller is deemed, in England, a necessary in- 

 strument of husbandry ; and it is in use among 

 some fiirmers in the United States. From my own 

 experience I. strongly recommend it. Mine may 

 perhaps be thought a heavy one ; but it is not too 

 heavy. It is of solid white oak, about seven feet 

 long, and twenty or more inches in diameter. — 

 After small grains, or hay seed, are sown and har- 

 rowed in, rolling presses the earth close about 

 them — drives in all the small stones — and in grass 

 crops forms a smooth surface for the scythe. If 

 ground is in a proper condition for receiving the 

 seed — neither too wet nor too dry, — that is, in a 

 friable mouldering state — the surface of the ground 

 will not be jjressed so hard as to prevent the ger- 

 mination of tlic seeds ; on the contrary, they will 

 spring and take root more successfully. If small 

 grain, as wheat, barlej', or oats, are merely har- 



rowed, a multitude of grains will lie loose and 

 naked on the surface, to be picked up by birds, or 

 parched and ruined by the sun. 05^ Any stones 

 on the ground too big to be jiresscd fully in by the 

 roller, ought to be previously picked np and re- 

 moved. 



7. Millet gives excellent hay ; and the straw, 

 after the seed is rijie and threshed out, furnishes a 

 very palatable food for cattle — very far superior 

 to any other straw. But to obtain a full crop of 

 millet, to rise as high as three or four feet, the 

 ground nnist be rich, and in fine tillage. 



8. Every one knov/s tliat swamps, where there 

 is a depth of soil, or mud, if laid dry by ditching, 



I yield great crops of hay. It has been a practice 



I with some farmers, besides ditching, to cover them 

 with a considerable coat of gravel or sand : but if 



I they admit of being thoroughly drained by ditch- 

 ing, I would never carry on gravel or sand — abso- 



ilutely barren substances. 



' On this article, I again refer to Cajit. Nichols. 

 He confines himself to ditching ; and has render- 

 ed his s\vamps dry enough to yield great croi)S of 

 herds grass hay. But he takes care, every year, 

 after his hay harvest, to cleanse his ditches, that 

 the water Diay run off freely ; otherwise its cur- 

 rent would be obstructed by the gra.ss which 

 springs up in them — especially in the small 

 ditches. 



9. JTany years ago I became satisfied that the 

 hilling of Indian corn was at least useless ; I was 

 rather inclined to think it injurious. The roots, if 

 not interrupted, will spread from hill to hill ; but 

 by hilling, the loose soil is scraped from the inter- 

 vals, and heaped up about the stems of the plants. 

 Doubtless the roots, after this, will endeavor, by 

 new shoots, to regain their natural depth ; but for 

 this end they must encounter harder ground, and 

 so bo checked. 



In Pennsylvania, it is a common practice to 

 plant corn in continued rows, with intervals of 

 about five feet between the rows, to admit of a 

 niore free cidtivation with the plough and harrow ; 

 while the plants are at small distances in the 

 rows. At the last dressing, the surface of the 

 gromid is left level. One acre laid off to be culti- 

 vated in lillls four feet .tpart, would give 2700 

 hills ; and with four plants in a hill, the whole 



number would he ten thousand eight hundred 



An acre laid off in rows five feet apart, and set 

 with two plants at every eighteen inches distance, 

 would give 11,600 plants — that is, 800 plants 

 more than the acre with hills. 



For the neat culture of Indian corn, the grains 

 when dro])ped should be regularly arranged ; but 

 as commonly dropped, many grains are scattered, 

 and in that situation grow up — to be afterwards 

 torn away by the plough and corn harrow ; or, to 

 save them, balks are left, which require more la- 

 bor with the hoe. Last year, vi-siting a farm a 

 fijw miles from Philadelphia, I there saw a tin 

 tube about three feet and a half long, with the top 

 flairiug orsiireading a little like a trumpet ; which 

 being moved from spot to spot, the corn was drop- 

 ped through it, and laid just where it was want- 

 ed, with i)crfect regularity. 



The great value of Indian corn stalks, in their 

 green state, for feeding cattle, milch cows especial- 

 ly, I have formerly mentioned. That which is 

 planted early, for this use, will be ready for Cf,t- 

 ting just when, in our comirfon summers, the j)as. 

 tures begin to fail. Land that would yield fifty 

 bushels of ripe corn to the acre, if cut close to the 



