THE GEKESEE FARMER. 



179 



THE MANAGEMENT OF PERMANENT GRASS LAND. 



OuE two best grasses for permanent pasture are 

 Kentucky blue grass and herds grass or red top. 

 Limestone soils are best for the blue grass, and 

 those called freestone will pay best in herds grass. 

 Where the chmate is not too hot, clover and timo- 

 thy will prosper in either kind of soU. The pro- 

 cess should be the same on all soils, but should be 

 varied according to the natural friability or com- 

 pactness of the surface. To get a stand of grass, 

 make the surface compact, and keep it so. In open 

 fields, the land may be sowed in rye early in tlie 

 fall. Then sow two gallons of timothy seed per 

 acre, and harrow and roll until the surface is well 

 packed. Let your cattle and horses graze and 

 trample this pasture well., till spring begins to open. 

 Then (in hmestone land) sow per acre four lbs. blue 

 grass seed and ten lbs. red clover seed, on the firm 

 surface ; but if the surface be not firm, roll it till it 

 is. In freestone lands, the blue grass should be 

 omitted, and herds grass sowed in its stead, at the 

 rate of one bushel per acre. 



The lot should now be allowed to grow tQl near 

 harvest, when you may turn in your stock to graze 

 it down, or harvest the rye and graze it afterwards. 

 In either event, stock must not be allowed to remain 

 and graze close enough to expose the roots of the 

 young grass to the hot sun. From this time the 

 lot must be allowed to grow up till nearly the time 

 for frost ; and then the more it is grazed and 

 tramped, till the beginning of the next spring, the 

 better. 



After your grass is one year old, the system 

 should be the same every year. You are to let 

 nothing touch the grass from the earliest dawn of 

 spring, till it is al>out to make seed. Then it must 

 be grazed off rapidly, so as not to allow the seed to 

 mature, because this would exhaust the roots, and 

 make the grass puny for a whole year afterwards. 

 Having thus pastured down your grass at the right 

 time, take off the stock till it grows up again. — • 

 You may turn on, and graze it down as often as 

 the season will allow it to produce a luxuriant 

 crop. During hot weather, never graze so closely 

 as to admit the hot sun to the roots of the grass ; 

 and during the fall and wnnter, graze it closely, and 

 allow it to be completely and heavily tramped by 

 stock till the beginning of spring. Feed your stalk 

 fodder, millet, and other forage, to your cattle on 

 the lot, in a new place every day, during the win- 

 ter. Besides this, a top dressing of lime and barn 

 manure every third year, will further improve the 

 pasture. Any weeds, briars, or bushes, not de- 

 stroyed by the stock, should be cut down with a 

 scythe during the summer. 



The more cross fences you can afford to have, 

 the more luxuriant will be your grass, because this 

 will allow the grazing of all lots in rapid rotation, 

 so as not to bruise or wound the grass long at a 

 time, in any '.'one lot. And let it be impressed, that 

 to keep your stock constantly oj^, or constantly on, 

 any one lot, would alike ruin it. But if you desire 

 a winter pasture, (especially of blue grass, which 

 withstands cold weather well,) you may, without 

 injur}', set apart a lot for winter, after having 

 grazed off the seed stalks in the spring as before 

 directed. This lot should then be grazed no more 

 till in the winter after all other lots have been fed 

 completely down. 



In this system, the clover and timothy are fore 

 runners, in the one case, for the blue grass, and in 

 the other, for the herds grass. They will take 

 immediate possession of the soil, afford pasture, 

 keep down weeds, and then give way as the other 

 grasses form a sod. f. h. joedon, m. d. 



Home, Smiih Co., Tenn. 



i» •■^— 



LOOK TO THE COTJCH GRASS. 



The white runner, quick, or quack grass, deserves 

 some notice from agriculturists — not for its worth, 

 but from the fact that it has become a serious nui- 

 sence in many portions of the country, and is yearly 

 increasing. Once fairly seated upon a farm, it is a 

 laborious task to remove it. Some think differ- 

 ently, supposing it can be destroyed in one season 

 by summer-fallowing, sowing to buckwheat, or fall 

 plowing. Either of the above methods may reduce 

 it, but wUl not entirely destroy it. Much mischief 

 follows this supposition. It is allowed to spread, 

 from the belief that it can be exterminated as if h\ 

 magic, when ever it is desirable to do so. Let me 

 say to such, it is a mistake. Years of labor will be 

 necessary ; and should every inch of tilable land be 

 cleansed, it may still be lurking in fence corners, or 

 under walls, and will need to be watched with jeal- 

 ous eye, as it wiU be creeping forward more or less 

 evei'y year. Where it has not made much pro- 

 gress, but may be found in small patches, take a 

 dung fork and dig it out, and remove it to some 

 place where it will not grow ; and when plowing, 

 small patches may be noticed, perhaps so small as 

 to be thought little of; but now is the time ; — stop 

 the plow and pick it out, root and branch. A min- 

 ute may do it now, but if you pass it by, it may 

 require an hour or a day when observed again. — 

 This is my method, and one that will not fail me 

 without I get too lazy, or in some way fail to stoop 

 to small things. d. leatheescioh. 



Caledonia, Livingston Co., N". Y, 



The Wat to have Good Roads. — Your corres- 

 pondent from Adams' Basin gives us the secret of 

 making good roads and keeping them so, when he 

 says, " If a deep cut occurs, have it the duty of 

 some one to fill it up directly." To accomplish 

 this, let us pay our highway taxes in money, as we 

 now pay other taxes, and have the money expended 

 in the several districts by employing men on pur- 

 pose. The present laws were good in the early set- 

 tlement of the country, when every man felt a deep 

 interest in the making of roads. The operation of 

 the present tax is unequal. If each man was com- 

 pelled to pay 40 cents per day, which would be 

 cheaper than to work his tax feirly and honestly, 

 we could have men to keep the roads in repair. 



I hope we shall soon get No. 3 from M. H. It is 

 a subject that will bear discussion. Saml. L. 

 FcLLEE. — Conesus Centre, K F., Ajn'il, 1858. 



OxJLTivATioN OF CoRN^. — When the corn comes 

 up, hari'ow well ; when large enough to plow, plow 

 deeply and constantly, causing the roots to strike 

 down until the time of shooting ; then the cultivator 

 must be used both ways. By the former deep plow- 

 ing, the ground is left loose for the roots to strike 

 out when the stalk requires the greatest nourish- 

 ment. To make the longest and' best filled ears, 

 is what the farmers are seeking for. * 



