478 



KeW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



6th inst. and finished on the evening of the 15th, 

 In that time, I got in 91 loads, with about 96 days' 

 labor, including boys, and what is extraordinary in 

 my husbandry, the whole was housed without a 

 drop of rain. I expended 15 gallons of rum, the 

 flesh of two calves, pork, fish and other provisions 

 the quantity unknown. I had scarcely housed my 

 hay, when a plentiful rain refreshed the earth. — C. 

 Stark, in Salem Gazette. 



For the New England Farmer. 



IMPROVEMENT OF PASTUKES. 



BY FREDERICK HOLBROOK. 



I am interested in the improvement of some frix- 

 ty acres of pasture land, now in low condition, hav- 

 ing been formerly impoverished with successive 

 crops of rye, and in later years too closely fed by 

 village cows. The land is covered with grasses of 

 inferior quality, interspersed here and there with 

 ferns, shrub-pines, and bushes of various sorts ; it 

 early feels the influence of summer droughts, so 

 that the pasturage is scanty and poor after about 

 the middle of July each year, — indeed, it is not of 

 very good quality at any season. The land lies 

 pretty well for plowing, being either level or mod- 

 erately undulating, and free from large boulders 

 or fast rocks, though cobbly in some places ; its 

 soil is rather thin, but naturally a tolerably good 

 quality of yellow loam. It is an important object 

 to improve the land, pasturage in this locality be- 

 ing quite scarce, and commanding a high price. 

 Various modes of improvement have been consid- 

 ered ; and the plan adopted is to plow up so much 

 annually as leisure from other employments will 

 permit, say ten to twelve acres, in August or the 

 forepart of September, top-dressing with some con- 

 centrated fertilizer, and reseeding to grass, sowing 

 winter rye at the same time, for pasturage, while 

 the young grass is getting foothold. It is not the 

 intention in any case to allow the rye to ripen for 

 a grain crop, as the removal of such a crop would 

 draw upon the land too heavily, and in a large 

 measure defeat its improvement for pasture. 



In August of last year, twelve acres of the old 

 pasture were measured off, for treatment in the 

 way above-mentioned. Before starting the plow, 

 the piece was cleared of the shrub-pines and large 

 bushes, by taking a chain-hitch around the tops 

 and pulling them out of the ground, roots and all, 

 ■with the oxen, and drawing them off the field, pil- 

 ing them in heaps for burning. A few furrows 

 were then turned around the field, with a hght 

 plow, drawn by one yoke of oxen ; but finding the 

 ^low and team were quite too light to contend suc- 

 cessfully with the stones and roots of brakes and 

 bushes still infesting the ground, a larger and wide 

 turning plow was substituted and an additional 

 yoke of oxen employed. The larger plow was set 

 to run from six to seven inches deep, and with the 



double team the work of breaking-up was easily 

 and thoroughly done. 



In plowing, particular care was taken to over- 

 turn the sod completely, and shut the furrow-slices 

 down flat, side by side, so that the vegetation then 

 standing should be entirely turned under and 

 smothered, leaving a clean sm-face-soil for the re- 

 ception of the grass-seed, in which the young plant 

 might grow without obstruction. In attempting 

 the improvement of an old pasture, it is quite im- 

 portant that the vegetation of poor quality which 

 has taken possession of the deteriorating soil, should 

 be handsomely turned beneath, to decompose and 

 furnish nutriment to the new grasses. A superfi- 

 cial "cut and cover" mode of plowing, therefore, 

 although it may seem to save a little time at the 

 outset, is in the end just no economy at all; for 

 wherever there is a balk in plowing, or the furrow- 

 slices are not matched in at the edges, there the 

 wild herbage will at once begin to spread its roots 

 and spring up again, choking down the young and 

 tender grasses of the new seeding, instead of yield- 

 ing them sustenance by its own decay beneath, and 

 growuig all the better for having the land in a 

 measure stirred up and mellowed. 



After plowing the land, it was harrowed length- 

 wise the furrows ; then top-dressed with the fol- 

 lowing fertilizers, sowing them by hand, broadcast, 

 the same as one would sow grain : eight acres with 

 ground bone, four hundred pounds to each acre ; 

 two acres with guano, three hundred pounds to the 



acre ; and two acres with fresh unleached ashes 



> 



twenty bushels to the acre. The field was then 

 stocked down with twelve quarts of herds-grass 

 and one bushel of red-top seeds, together with five 

 pecks of winter rye to each acre, and thoroughly 

 harrowed across and lengthwise the furrows, and 

 the surface pressed down smooth with a heavy rol- 

 ler, — the work being all finished before the first of 

 September. 



The weather during the autumn following being 

 quite wet, the rye and grasses came up finely, cover- 

 ing the plowed land with a handsome green — the 

 rye giving the cowS considerable feed in October. 

 The rye and young grasses survived the winter 

 well, and started up green early in the spring, giv- 

 ing pasturage before vegetation had started much 

 in the old sward of the adjoining land. The rye 

 mostly disappeared, however, early in July, but 

 the young grass took its place, standing well through 

 the summer, and affording a fresh, tender bite for 

 the cows, even in the dryest time, when the old 

 fields adjoining were so parched by droughts as to 

 yield but Httle feed, and that not very good. In- 

 deed, just as far off as the eye could discern the 

 pasture lot, it would readily mark off the newly 

 seeded portion, by its deep green color in contrast 

 with the brown and sombre appearance of the 

 surrounding land. The rye paid for itself well in 



