180 



THE GENEirEE FARMER 



TOP-DRESSLNG GRASS LANDS. 



Levi Bartlett contributes an interesting article 

 on this subject to the Country Gentleman. After 

 alluding to the importance of the subject, he says: 



Among the most important experiments in top- 

 dressing grass lands with different fertilizers, those 

 of Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, of Roth'amstead, 

 Eng., take precedence. ''The land selected for the 

 experiments comprised about six acres of the park 

 of Rothamstead, and it had been under permanent 

 grass for certainly more than a century. Early in 

 1856, nine plots of half an acre each were meas- 

 ured off, for as many different combinations of so- 

 called artificial manuring substances ; two of an 

 acre each to be continuously un manured, and two 

 of a quarter of an acre each, to be manured annu- 

 ally with farm dung." 



We can not here go into the particulars' of the 

 whole series of the different plots and fertilizers, 

 but must content ourselves with some of the general 

 results arrived at by Messrs. L. and G., viz: Where 

 purely mineral manures were used, they greatly 

 increased the growth of leguminous plants (clo- 

 vers), with very little increase of the true or long- 

 leaved grasses. Where the purely ammoniacal 

 salts were applied, the effect was to much increase 

 the graminaceous or lung-leaved grasses, without 

 at all increasing the growth of clover. Where a 

 mixture of both mineral and ammoniacal manures 

 were applied, the increase of hay was very strik- 

 ing, over that on the plots receiving the two kinds 

 separately. 



It was found that although the ammoniacal salts 

 when used alone, gave an annual increase of only 

 eleven cwt. of hay, the same amount of ammoni- 

 acal salts, when in conjunction with the "mixed 

 mineral manure " (plot ten), gave an annual in- 

 crease of one ton, fifteen and three-eights cwt. of 

 hay. That the combination of ammoniacal salts 

 and the mixed mineral manure gave more than 

 three times as much increase as the ammoniacal 

 salts alone, and four times as much as the mineral 

 manure alone. The average annual produce by the 

 mixture of the ammoniacal salts and mineral man- 

 ure, amounted in fact to within less than a hundred 

 weight of three tons of hay per acre, by the side 

 of one ton, four cwt. per acre on the continuously 

 unmanured land. 



The above statements seem to point out pretty 

 conclusively, that for the greatest increase of our 

 farm crops, the manures applied should contain all 

 the necessary ingredients of the crops, both organic 

 and inorganic, of which good farm-yard manure, is 

 the "type." The above may be laid down as a 

 general rule, to which there may possibly be some 

 exceptions — as in the cases of superphosphate of 

 lime for the turnip plant, and ammonia for the 

 wheat plant. But the farmer who depends upon 

 raising maximum crops, and keeping up the fertili- 

 ty of his soil for any great length of time, by the 

 continued use of either class of manures alone, will 

 ultimately find his system of manuring has been a 

 bad one. 



"Among the most interesting of the points inci- 

 dentally brought out by the experiments, is the 

 striking confirmation which the results afford of 

 the (so to speak) special adaptation, in a course of 



practical agriculture, of certain of the crops of our 

 rotations, according as they belong to one or the 

 other of the two great families of plants," the le- 

 guminous — clover, lucerne, peas and beans ; and 

 the graminaceous — wheat, barley, rye, timothy, and 

 other long-leaved or natural grasses. The u inter- 

 esting points" brought out were, that the applica- 

 tion of the mineral manure alone greatly increased 

 the clovers without anything like a corresponding 

 increase of the natural grasses; while the effect of 

 the ammoniacal manures was exactly the reverse. 

 And, where the two kinds of manures were used 

 conjointly, " the produce consisted almost exclu- 

 sively of graminaceous plants. There was scarcely 

 a clover or any other leguminous plant to be found 

 on the plot." 



The past season Mr. Harris, of the Genesee Far- 

 mer, experimented on grass lands with several kinds 

 of fertilizers, both organic and inorganic, alone and 

 mixed. The application of the several kinds of 

 manure exhibited similar results to those obtained 

 by Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, viz,, " the plots 

 that were dressed with ammonia, superphosphate 

 of lime, and unleached ashes, gave a very much 

 greater quantity of produce than any others." 

 There is one fact that we must not forget to men- 

 tion. The superphosphate and ashes on plot No. 

 6, brought in a large quantity of red clover. The 

 effect in this particular was very marked. On plot 

 No. 7. with ashes and plaster, there was also a lit- 

 tle clover, but not one-tenth as much as from the 

 superphosphate and ashes." The field experiment- 

 ed on was a timothy meadow, six years from seed- 

 ing. Mr. H. does not attempt to draw any con- 

 clusions from the results, intending to repeat the 

 experiments next season. 



The "Transactions of the Essex Ag. Society, 

 18(51," contain an interesting statement on top- 

 dressing grass lands, by Richard S. Rogers, Esq., 

 of South Danvers. He says, "There is no subject 

 in agriculture deserving of more inquiry, and of 

 greater importance to the farming interest, than 

 the knowledge of the best kind of fertilizers to be 

 used for top-dressing grass lands. As yet but little 

 is actually known by which to arrive at any prac- 

 tical results for obtaining the largest crops of grass. 



"The desire of knowing something more definite 

 and practical on this interesting subject, induced 

 me last season to institute in a small way a series 

 of experiments, in the hope that I might derive 

 some benefit myself, and be useful to others. Ac- 

 cordingly, in April, 1860, I selected a field best 

 adapted to the purpose— very uniform in the sward,, 

 free from shade and other objections — and staked 

 out five several lots, each measuring 250 feet long 

 by 45 feet wide, and top-dressed with the various 

 fertilizers, as follows : 



No. 1. — 2 cords of manure, well rotted and mixed 

 with 1\ horse carts of soil. 



No. 2. — 120 bushels leached wood ashes. 



No. 3. — 2 cords green cow manure, the drop- 

 pinas of only a few days before. 



No. 4. — 80 bushels unleached or dry wood ashes. 



No. 5. — 225 lbs. of Peruvian guano, mixed with 

 l'J horse carts of brook mud. 



" The cost and value of the top-dressing for 

 each lot was as near $10 as possible. The grass 

 was carefully cut and made — the first crop in July, 



