346 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



have carried out the manure in the spring, you 

 •will know what use to make of it. You cannot 

 spend a few days, at this time, more profitably in 

 any other way, than in ditching and reclaiming. 



August is the time for plowing and seeding 

 down such mowing lands as need re-seeding. 

 That is, if the work is done in this month, the 

 grass will gain such growth and strength as 

 to go through the winter with more safety than 

 if postponed to a later day, — it will not be so 

 likely to get winter-killed. From the 10th of 

 August to September 20, is appropriate time for 

 this work. There can be no doubt that this is the 

 best way to resuscitate worn-out grass lands. 

 But it is important that it be done in season. 

 The warmth of AUGUST will cause the seed to 

 germinate, and get a good start, and be pre- 

 pared to resist the frosts of autumn. By this 

 mode of reseeding, nothing is lost but the fall 

 feed, and on land where the crop of grass is 

 small, this is of little value. 



Plow to a good depth, according to the nature 

 of the land, and spread on a liberal dressing of 

 compost, and harrow thoroughly. Then sow the 

 seed and harrow again, and follow with the roller, 

 leaving the surface as smooth as a floor. If the 

 ground is wet, and the surface should be thrown 

 by the frost of the coming winter, pass over it 

 with the roller again in the spring. This will 

 leave it in good condition for the mowing ma- 

 chine. The compost will give the grass an early 

 start in the spring, and the roots will soon find 

 the mellow, decaying sod, and you will have a 

 full crop of grass the next season. It will be 

 a week later than the crop on fields that have 

 been laid down two or three years, but quite 

 equal in quantity and quality. A good soil, 

 moderately moist, may be jilowed and re-seeded 

 in this way, once in six or eight years, and made 

 to yield steadily a fine crop of hay, of the very 

 Lest quality, at a trifling expense. 



We have long been convinced that this is the 

 best way of treating grass lands, that are rather 

 low and moist. If they are planted with hoed 

 crops, it takes about three years to get the sod 

 well rotted and pulverized. They are cold, and 

 cannot always be planted early, and are hard to 

 work, and the crops are apt to be* injured by the 

 cut worm, and require re-planting, and if after 

 two or three years of cultivation, they are sowed 

 down with grass and oats, the grass-seed is much 

 lees certain to catch well, so that on the whole, 

 we con^xAex fall-seeding , as it is called, much the 

 most certain and economical way of keeping 

 grass lands in good condition. But as we have 

 already said, success will depend very much on 

 doing the work at the right time, — and now is a 

 good time to be about it. 



In June, and also in Jttly, we hinted at the im- 



portance of keeping a watchful eye upon the 

 weeds. This matter is no less important this 

 month, for now the weeds are maturing their 

 seeds, and if you let them ripen, they will make 

 much work for next year. 



The hoeing is now generally finished, but if 

 the ground is weedy, it will pay well to go through 

 the field, row by row, and pull out with care all 

 the weeds that have escaped the hoe. Make 

 thorough work of this, and it will save a deal of 

 vexatious labor next year. 



We have a friend Avho takes the utmost care of 

 his garden in the early part of the season. He 

 rakes it over as often as twice a week, and not a 

 weed can be found in it during the month of 

 June. But after he has got his first mess of po- 

 tatoes, which he usually does on the Fourth of 

 July, he gets tired of the work, and hangs up his 

 hoe and rake, and in September his ground is 

 covered with weeds which yield a fine crop of 

 I seed, and of course, he will find enough to do 

 next spring, and indeed, every spring, as long as 

 I he lives, if he continues the same course. Now 

 if he would take as much pride in showing a clean 

 surface among his plants in AUGUST and Sep- 

 tember, as he does in June, he would find the 

 labor of tending his garden grow less and less 

 every year. He is not the only one who needs a 

 little good advice in this respect. There are many 

 gardens that look well in the spring and early 

 summer, but in autumn are like the garden of 

 the sluggard, all overgrown with weeds. This is 

 poor economy. It will be cheaper in the long run 

 to pull out every weed that shows itself, not only 

 in the spring, but in the summer and autumn. 

 This will leave the ground in a state to be much 

 more easily taken care of next year. And even 

 if the ground is to be seeded down next year, it 

 will pay well to keep it free from weeds, in order 

 to prevent a mixture of weeds with the grain 

 crop. 



The farmer always has enough to do. He can 

 never afford to be idle. But it is a matter of 

 much importance that he be employed in labors 

 appropriate to the season. As he cannot do every 

 thing at once, he must use his best judgment in 

 selecting the proper labor for to-day. Let him 

 do this well, and to-morrow will bring its appro- 

 priate work. Thus every day will be spent to the 

 best advantage, and at the close of the season, he 

 will not have to lament his "lost days." 



Drugging Animals. — Continual dosing ani- 

 mals is just as useless and injurious to them, as 

 is constant swallowing drugs and poisonous 

 compounds to the human system. It is all folly 

 to allow your stables to become hospitals, and to 

 smell and appear like an apothecary's shop. It 

 is much more humane to shoot ahorse, or knock 



