1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



453 



would like exact information from any reader 

 who knows the habits of the grass in this respect. 

 This much I have observed, that the quality of 

 the hay is not at all injured by letting the grass 

 stand till the seed is ripe. The bottom foliage 

 seems to thicken up all the more by delaying the 

 cutting till into August, and it holds perfectly 

 fresh and green till after the heads are ripe. In 

 fact, I have noticed occasional little patches, on 

 the sides of the ditches or in corners of the field, 

 which happened to escape the scythe at haying 

 time, that held perfectly bright and green at the 

 bottom till late in the autumn, or until eaten off 

 by the cattle ranging in the fall feed. I have to- 

 day been down into the meadow and gathered a 

 handful of the grass, to see the stage of forward- 

 ness of the heads, and find the seed sheds a little 

 now. From the first to the middle of August, I 

 judge would be a suitable time to cut fowl mea- 

 dow, as it usually grows in this intervale. 



Awgust and the fore part of September is a 

 good time to sow the seed. The land should be 

 plowed deep, with a plow suitable for four or 

 more cattle, so as to have earth enough above 

 the inverted sod out of which to raise a deep 

 mellow surface-tilth, free from sods and old 

 grasses. A moderate dressing of rotten compost 

 would be well, spread on the surface and har- 

 rowed in. But if the land is rich and mellow, and 

 well drained, it may do without the manure. Af- 

 ter harrowing well, sow the seed liberally — six to 

 eight pecks per acre — and work it in with a bush 

 or light roller, which will give it a sufficient cov- 

 ering. Where land has been recently drained, 

 and is for the first time taken up from a wild, wet 

 state, and is encumbered with hassocks, bogs, 

 and other coarse matters, which need subjection, 

 it might be well to till it for a year or tv^o in 

 hoed crops, perhaps manuring it somewhat for 

 the same ; and when thus brought to a suitable 

 fineness of tilth, it might be stocked down in the 

 spring with fowl meadow grass, but omitting the 

 sowing of a grain crop with it, as the grain would 

 choke the grass too much, and prevent its thriv- 

 ing, thus adding nothing to the ultimate product 

 or profit of the land. 



So far as I have observed, the fowl meadow 

 grass does not grow in an underdrained bog. It 

 wants moist land, such as a lowland meadow, or 

 a swamp or swale, well drained, so as to relieve 

 the surface of all stagnant or standing water. 



The name of this grass is a little unfortunate, 

 inasmuch as most persons, on hearing or think- 

 ing about the name, without attending to the 

 spelling of it, get the idea that it is a sort oi foul 

 grass, of a sour, swaley character. Nothing, how- 

 ever, could be further from the truth, as it makes 

 the very finest and sweetest of hay. 



The llev. Doct. Jared Elliot, in an essay writ- 

 ten in the year 1751, gives some interesting facts 

 respecting the origin, habits and qualities of this 

 grass. In Vol. 4, old J^eic England Farmer, I 

 find the following extract from his essay. "There 

 are two sorts of Grass, (says the Doctor,) which 

 are natives of the country, which I would recom- 

 mend ; one is Herd- Grass, (knovin in Pennsyl- 

 vania by the name of Timothy-Grass,) the other 

 is Fowl-Mcadoiv, sometimes called Buck- Grass, 

 and sometimes Stcamp-Wire- Grass. It is said 

 that Herd-Grass was first found in a swamp in 

 "Piscataqua, (now Portsmouth, New Hampshire,) 



by one Herd who propagated the same : — That 

 Fowl-Meadoto- Grass was brought into a piece of 

 meadow in Dedham. (near Boston,) by ducks and 

 other wild water-fowl, and therefore called by 

 such an odd name. It is supposed to be brought 

 into the meadows at Hartford by the annual 

 floods, and called there Su-nmp-Wire Grass. Of 

 these two sorts of Natural Grass, the Fowl-Mea- 

 dow is much the best ; it grows tall and thick, 

 makes a more soft and pliable hay than Herd- 

 Grass : it yields a good burden, three loads to 

 the acre. It must be sown in low, moist land. 

 Our drained land, when it is of sufficient age, is 

 land very agreeable to tiiis sort of grass. This 

 grass has another good quality, which renders it 

 very valuable in a country where help is much 

 wanting ; it will not spoil or suffer, although it 

 stand beyond the common time of mowing. Clo- 

 ver will be lost, in a great measure, if it be not 

 cut in the proper season. Spire-Grass, common- 

 ly called English Grass, if it stand too long, will 

 be little better than rye-straw : but this Fowl- 

 Meadow maybe mowed at any time from July to 

 October." 



I for one should be gratified if correspondents 

 of the Farmer familiar with the fowl meadow 

 grass, would give us the details of their experi- 

 ence with it, and call the attention of our farmers 

 to its cultivation. The draining and reclaiming 

 of bog-meadows, swamps, and other wet and 

 swaley places, and converting them into hand- 

 some, productive mowing-fields of the cultivated 

 grasses, is now becoming considerably practiced 

 in New England. I am persuaded that much 

 benefit might be realized to our agriculture, by 

 inducing the farmers to stock their reclaimed 

 wet lands with the fowl meadow grass. 



Braltltboro' , Aug. 5, 1859. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 OIL SOAPS FOR BOKEHS. 



Mr. Editor : — An article under the aboTC 

 heading, in your August number, has caught my 

 attention. Perhaps Mr. P. refers to an article 

 of my writing ; if so, he may l)e informed I used 

 common whale-oil soap, worth in New Bedford 

 about eight cents per pound. My manner of 

 using it was to clean the trunks of the trees, 

 from three inches below the surface of the ground 

 to six inches above, perfectly clean of little 

 fibrous roots, loose bark, and every extraneous 

 substance, and after doing so, to rub in the soap 

 in an undiluted state most thoroughly, filling all 

 the worm-holes. I also dug out all the worms I 

 could get at, and those I could not readily reach, 

 I probed with a piece of whalebone. 



I don't know when the egg is deposited, but 

 from my observation, it is hatched in the early 

 part of June, near the surface of the bark, and 

 the borers are then most easily destroyed by the 

 application of the soap. 



I have discovered but two borers in my or- 

 chard since my first application, and several of 

 my trees which were very badly injured, are now 

 completely recovered. 



I believe it is three years last spring since I 

 made this experiment which has proved perfect- 

 ly satisfactory. Nathan Briggs. 



Sippican, Mass., August 8, 1859. 



