436 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



en inches deep. It has been my usual custom, 

 when using compost manure upon sod land, for 

 corn, to first plow the land from seven to ten 

 inches deep, according to its qualities, and then 

 spread the compost upon the plowed land and 

 harrow and lightly plow it in, so as to cover it 

 three or four inches deep. The manure thus 

 treated has always made a heavy crop of corn 

 and fodder, and nothing has been needed in the 

 hill to bring the crop forward early, for the roots 

 very soon struck through the mellow seed-bed 

 into the manure, so as to give the corn a rapid 

 growth. This year, however, I thought I would 

 try one field of corn more, with the compost 

 turned under the sod. 



The corn stands quite even, and is of pretty 

 good color and size, but backward, and lacks that 

 great stout growth my fields usually show at this 

 season of the year. It may in the end come up 

 to a favorable comparison with previous crops, 

 where the manure was kept nearer the surface, 

 but I have my doubts about it. The compost be- 

 ing akeady fermented and rotten, it lies too dead 

 and inactive at the bottom of the furrow and un- 

 der the sod. Perhaps when it is turned up to 

 the surface again, for succeeding crops, it will 

 make a satisfactory mark upon them ; but I fear 

 it is one year too late to suit me exactly. Coarse 

 unfermented manure would have done better un- 

 der the turf; or if the land had been stubble in- 

 stead of green sward, the compost would have 

 done better plowed in seven inches deep. From 

 experiments I had tried years ago, I felt pretty 

 sure I knew about this matter of burying fine 

 manure under the turf, but still I tried it again, 

 with something of the spirit a friend once mani- 

 fested when I was looking over his farm with 

 him. He was quite as particular to show me all 

 the failures, as the successes in his farming, re- 

 marking — "I tried this or that so, because I want 

 to know what wont do as well as what will." 



I next visited a tract of upland pasture, in 

 which is a piece of twelve acres, that four years 

 since was the poorest part of the whole, and was 

 plowed up and re-seeded at once to grass. You 

 may remember that I mentioned this piece of 

 land in a communication to the Fanner, two 

 years ago this present month. The land was cov- 

 ered with a sward of moss and feeble grasses, 

 with bushes and shrubs of various sorts, the larg- 

 est of which were pulled up with the oxen, root 

 and branch, and hauled off the field and burned. 

 In the month of August the land was broken up 

 about six inches deep, with a large plow drawn 

 by two yokes of oxen, and much pains was taken 

 to lay the sward over smooth and flat, so as to 

 bury the old vegetation, and make a good clean 

 surface for the new seeding. A part of the field 

 was then dressed with 400 lbs. of bone dust per 

 acre, a part with 300 lbs. of Peruvian guano, and 

 the balance with twenty bushels of unleached 

 ashes to the acre, and the land harrowed length- 

 wise and across tlie furrows. Twelve quarts of 

 herds grass and one bushel of red-top seed, to- 

 gether with about one bushel of winter rye, were 

 then sown on each acre, and the land lightly har- 

 rowed, and smoothed down with the roller. The 

 rye was fed off" by the cows, while the young 

 grass was getting root, and was not allowed to 

 mature into a grain crop. 



The new seeding came up well, and has everj 



since aff"orded excellent pasturage. The grass to- 

 day stands thick and strong, and has a life and 

 vigor about it not possessed by that on the sur- 

 rounding old swards. There is apparently little 

 or no difference in the beneficial eff"ects of the 

 ashes and the bone dust. The grass on that por- 

 tion of the field where the guano was applied is 

 good, but not quite so thick and strong as where 

 the ashes and the bone were used. The cows 

 visit the field daily, keeping the grass down very 

 close and smooth, and apparently preferring it to 

 any other feed in the entire range of pasture. 

 The contrast is quite marked between the green 

 and luxuriant grass of this field, and the brown 

 and dingy vegetation of the adjoining lands ; so 

 great, indeed, as to leave no doubt in the mind 

 of the observer that it will be best to plow up the 

 remainder of the tract and seed it anew. 



I wish that persons who have tolerably smooth 

 old pasture lands, where the grass is feeble and 

 poor and needs renewing, might try the eft'ects 

 of plowing up and re-seeding at least an acre or 

 two. The work should be done in August, or 

 quite early in September, turning the sod over 

 just as nicely as it can be done. If a light dress- 

 ing of ashes or some other concentrated fertili- 

 zer can be had, that will help the young grass to 

 come up well. Even ten bushels of unleached 

 ashes to the acre would shoAV good eflfects ; and 

 so would a mixture of say five bushels of ashes 

 with two or three hundred weight of plaster to 

 the acre. But even without these applications, 

 the pasture will be improved by plowing and re- 

 seeding. The old bound out sward of moss and 

 grasses of inferior quality, the sweet fern and 

 other small bushes, and the cattle droppings, be- 

 ing turned smoothly under, decompose gradually 

 and give nourishment to the better grasses of the 

 new seeding. In no case, however, should a crop 

 of grain be taken off", unless the land has been 

 fully compensated by the application of some fer- 

 tilizer to it, for the grain would tax the land too 

 much, and bring in moss and other poor herbage, 

 thus preventing all improvement. 



AVell, my friend, this has become a long story 

 of mine, but if you will just come and take a 

 tramp round the fields here with me, I will show 

 you a great deal more than I can communicate 

 by writing. 



Braltlehoro' , Aug. 2, 1858. 



Remarks. — Thank you, for the invitation, but 

 we must take our "tramp" in another direction 

 at present. 



The "Concord Farmers' Club" has never found 

 any satisfactory cause for the abortion in cows 

 which prevails to such an extent in that vicinity. 

 One farmer in Concord told us he would pay 

 $200 a year as a guaranty against that disease. 

 We have known 30 cases in a single i>eighbor- 

 hood during one spring season. It seems to oc- 

 cur equally among cows fed and stabled in all the 

 usual ways — so that it is not confined to cows fed 

 with oat meal, corn meal, shorts, roots, or on hay 

 alone, or tied with chains, bows or stanchions — 

 it occurs among them all, and is one of our great- 

 est hindrances to profitable farming. vVho can 

 solve the knotty question ? 



