68 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



AUG. 31, IS 4: 



WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR EX- 

 HAUSTED PASTURES? 

 Shall we plow them again and try to get another 

 crop of rye, of eight bushels per aero; or shall we 

 so manage as to recruit them and make them worth 

 fencing? In some of the southern counties of this 

 State, a large portion of the pasture lands are run- 

 ning up to wood. We prefer seeing this to seeing 

 the bush scythe swinging over these acres, or the 

 plow in quest of a rye harvest that will scarcely 

 repay the expense of cultivation, though it will in- 

 evitably leave the soil poorer. 



It is evident that too much of our land was clear- 

 ed up and too much time was spent by the early 

 settlers to destroy the young growth which would 

 have been far more profitable fur timber and wood 

 than grain. A great proportion of the cleared 

 land was quite too rocky and rough for any thing 

 but wood ; and if a proper system bad been early 

 established, we should now see all our ledgy and 

 rocky land covered with a forest growth, and all 

 our cleared fields in such good heart as to be woith 

 cultivating. 



But what do we now see within twenty or thirty 

 miles of the old Capital of New England ? Tliou. 

 sands of acres of land reduced so low by eternal 

 cropping, that ten acres are not sufficient to feed 

 one cow through the summer: and instead of any 

 attempts to bring back these acres to their pristine 

 fatness and vigor, we see the owners folding their 

 hands, and saying they can buy no manure and 

 can therefore do nothing to improve tliese acres ; 

 that they have not manure enough for their tilled 

 crops or for their mowing lands, much less for old 

 pastures or for old bogs. 



But we are much pleased to see that a better 

 spirit is prevailing in nearly every town within the 

 limits named, and we have hopes that the " New 

 Husbandry" will be as contagious as any fever of 

 the times, and will spread as rapidly over the land. 

 A few short years only have elapsed since we 

 commenced urging farmers to use their plows in 

 their pasture grounds and to endeavor to make 

 them gradually richer than to exhaust them by 

 snatching away every spear of grain that could be 

 grown. Many have tried our plan, and many are 

 pleased with the results. 



Deacon Levi Parker, of Wilmington, tells us he 

 has sown two bushels of rye per acre in his pasture 

 grounds in September, for the purpose of feeding it 

 in the spring ; that this gives him a fine early bite 

 for his cows long before they could obtain any 

 thing green in any other part of his pastures — that 

 he sows on his grass seed in the latter part of 

 March, on the snow, if there is any, and that he 

 has not yet failed of its taking well and yielding 

 fine feed before the summer was gone, the rye giv- 

 ing him a great abundance early, while the clover, 

 redtop, &c., would be ready later in the season. 



The expense of this mode of renovating old pas- 

 tures is quite trifling compared with that of fencing 

 off and planting for a year or two — buying ma- 

 nures or robbing the fields of the share that has 

 been usually dealt out to them. And any man 

 who has a team may bring back all his old pas- 

 tures., gradually, to produce as much as on the first 

 clearing. If any farmer is really afraid that he 

 could not keep his sickle off a good looking field; 

 or that it is sinful to let cows eat any thing but 

 grass ; let him sow grass seed alone. He will 

 have better feed than before ; and though his pas- 

 ture will not grow rich so fast as if he sowed rye 

 to be fed, for he cannot have so much stock on it 



to manure it, still it will improve, and no doubt] I have plowed my ground for planting for the 

 will keep pace with his own ideas of advancement | last two years the last week in August, and have 



in farming. 



Our readers will bear in rjiind that the new 

 modes of renovating pasture grounds here recom- 

 mended, admit of plowing at the most leisure sea- 

 son of the year ; when the team is strong ; when 

 it can be kept at the cheapest rate ; when the pas- 

 ture can be best spared ; and when it is neither 

 too dry nor too wet. For we may plow pastures 

 at any leisure time from August to November ; 

 taking care not to sow seed late in the fall, but to 

 harrow and prepare for sowing on the light snows 

 of the next spring. Grass seed will then bury it- 

 self sufficiently without human aid. When rye is 

 sown for feeding, it is advisable to sow it early in 

 September. 



Another important advantage is gained by reno- 

 vating pastures in this way. We avoid all neces- 

 sity of fencing off that portion of the land which is 

 to bo plowed — we can choose our ground, and take 

 up one, two, or more acres out of a dozen and leave 

 other parts untouched, letting the cattle run over 

 the whole as freely as if no seed was sown. 



'I'his is a great saving of labor in fencing ; and 

 people who have but one single pasture and no 

 fencing materials, can have no excuse for suffering 

 their old pastures to lie fifty years without an at- 

 tempt to make them profitable. — MaiS. Plowman. 



done nothing to it only harrow it in the spring, andl 

 it is about as good planting as ground that was> 

 planted the year before. 



Respectfully, yours, 



LEVI PARKER. 

 Wilmington, Aug. 8, 1842. 



From the same. 



SOWING RYE WITH GRASS SEED AND 

 FEEDING OUT. 



Sill — A subscriber from Wrentham, to your pa- 

 per, wishes to be informed whether grass seed sow- 

 ed this fall with rye, for feeding next summer, will 

 take as well when the rye is suffered to ripen and 

 is taken off by the fick/e, as when no rye is sowed. 



Now, Mr Editor, I will let you know my experi- 

 ence in this matter. I have plowed my pasture 

 and sowed rye to feed off, a number of years, and 

 I think that the grass does far better to feed llio 

 rye off than to reap it. 



I had a piece sowed to feed off twenlynne years 

 ago, and my neighbors told me if I suffered my 

 cows to feed it off, they hoped I should have to 

 pay two dollars per bushel for rye. So that year I 

 reaped the rye and a very good piece of rye I had ; 

 but where the rye was large I did not have any 

 grass, though it never failed to do well when I 

 have let my cows feed the rye off. 



Last year I plowed a piece in August and sowed 

 a double quantity of rye, and on part of it I sowed 

 the grass seed when I sowed the rye, and on the 

 other part I sowed the grass seed last March, and 

 that I sowed in March, I should say was four times 

 as good as that I sowed in August. 



I believe there is no risk in sowing grass seed in 

 March. I have sowed it more or less for these 

 twentyfive years, and I never have had poor luck: 

 as people say, it always has done extraordinarily 

 well. 



In 18.39, I plowed one of my pastures and plant- 

 ed it with corn and potatoes in 1840, with one 

 shiivelfuU of manure in the hill. After I had taken 

 the crop off, in the fall, I sowed rye, plowing and 

 levelling as well as we could with harrow and hoes. 

 In March, 1841, I sowed my grass seed — herds- 

 grass, redtop and clover; part of the land very wet 

 and part very dry ; and I never had grass do any 

 better. You must remember I let my cows feed it 

 all summer. 



DESTROY THE WEEDS.' 



It is an old proverb and a true one, that " one 

 year's seeding makes seven years' weeding." To 

 eradicate thoroughly the plants to which the seed 

 of one parent will give birth, is a labor of no small 

 difficulty. Some species of noxious weeds are 

 prolific beyond measure, and if suffered to run to, 

 seed, on soils devoted to cultivation, and which are' 

 adapted for their reception and growth, are of in- 

 calculable evil, and the source of no small vexa- 

 tion and waste of time. 



It is an excellent plan to go over our cultivated 

 lands, therefore, in the early period of autumn, and 

 carefully pull up and destroy every weed that can 

 be found. No matter how insignificant it may be, 

 ing appearance, it will assuredly produce seed, and 

 this seed, when sowed broad cast by the winds, 

 will vegetate and produce a progeny which will be 

 eradicated only by the greatest care. There ie 

 nothing, indeed, which reflects more discredit upon 

 a farmer, than the sight of fields infested and over- 

 run with weeds. The thistle and the mullen are 

 ever the companions of the sluggard, and wher- 

 ever found, indicate a state of indolence and inac- 

 tivity on the part of the owner, deserving only the 

 severest reprehension and rebuke. Some farmers 

 are in the habit of gathering up the weeds, &c.. 

 that grow about their premises, and placing then: 

 in their yards and styes. But this is a pernicious 

 practice, and will never be indulged where any re- 

 spect is paid, either to facile cultivation or th« 

 health and cleanliness of the crop. 



With many, a very erroneous opinion appears t< 

 prevail as to the strength of the heat engenderec 

 by dung while undergoing the process of fernienla 

 tion ; the general supposition being that it is suffi 

 ciently powerful utterly to destroy the vitality o. 

 any seed, however indurated may he the pericarps 

 which may be deposited in the mass. This suppo^ 

 sition, however, is groundless, as the fermentatior 

 never (unless in particular circumstances,) is found 

 to rise sufficiently high to effect this end. The 

 seeds of sorrel, mullen, and white-weed, are in no 

 wise injured as respects their vitality, even whet 

 exposed to the intensest heat that can be produced 

 in this way without an actual combustion of the 

 dung. On the contrary, all the above named seeds 

 are actually benefited by it. The heat thus pro- 

 duced, induces an early germination, and by the 

 time the soil is fit for the reception of the manure, 

 the youtlit'ul weeds are in a state of development 

 which enables them, when transferred to the soil, 

 to take root before those, upon the timely germina- 

 tion and subsequent healthiness and strength oJ' 

 which the hopeful husbandman bases his expecta- 

 tions of a crop. In this way what was judged tc 

 be judicious economy, results, ultimately, in a ru- 

 inous and almost suicidal waste. The little ma- 

 nure he gains by the decomposition of the weeds, 

 is purchased at an outlay of no small labor and 

 expense, and, what is still worse, his fields, instead 

 of being purged of their noxious tenants, the weeds, 

 are more prodigally infested than before. They, 



