NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JCIiY 15, 11S3S. 



i}. O m a '2 ^ 3E. ^" ^ Si S2 a 



I.AYING DOWN GRA^SS I-AND. 



In the 3fl volume of the Memoirs of the Board 

 of Agriculture of the State of New York, wc 

 find UH article by S. De Witt, Esq. of Albany 

 from which we extract the following. 



There, in Great Britain, ws are taught that in 

 in order to have good pastures or meadows, no 

 pains or expense must be spared to enrich the soil, 

 , where that is needed, to destroy as far as possible 

 by a siiitable course of husbandry every weed or 

 plant that previously occupied the field ; to have 

 the ground perfectly pulverized by ploughing and 

 harrowing, and then to sow on it a plentiful 

 quantity of grass seed suited to tVie soil, and of 

 those kinds which have been proved to be the 

 ■best for those purposes. The fault I mean to find 

 with our practice contrasted with that of the Eng- 

 lish is this — ^for pasture or meadow we sow in 

 the spring of the year, on a field of winter grain 

 a sma'l quantity of grass seed, from which we 

 expect our future pastures and meadows, and 

 trust to their branching out in two or three years 

 90 as to make tolerable pastures or meadows. In 

 the meanwhile other grasses and weeds spring up 

 so as to occupy most of the ground ; and this is 



most notoriously the case in our new country, 

 where the seeds of thousands of varieties of 

 plants lie in the ground ready to spring up and 

 overcome the growth of artificial grasses. In or- 

 der to prevent this, the English practice before 

 descrilied is the more necessary here. The abo- 

 riginal weeds must first be destroyed by preceding 

 crops, especially by those which require the use of 

 the hoe, and then such a quantity of clean well 

 selected grass seeds must be sown as will clever- 

 ly fill the ground and in their growth smother 

 every other vegetable. For this purpose too much 

 seed cannot be put into the ground at once. The 

 practice of put.ing a small quantity of grass seed 

 on ground laid down for pastiu-es or meadows is 

 one of the greatest errors in the husbandry of our 

 country. On this subject I wish that our farmers 

 would consult a book published in London, called 

 the Complete Grazier. It gives recipes for the 

 kinds and quantities of seed per acre proper to 

 be sown on all the varieties of soils, such as clay, 



loam, sand, chalk, peats, up-lands, mid-lands, low- 

 lands. 



As a sample I will co[.y a recipe for an acre for 



low-land ; meadow fox-tail 2 pecks, meadow fes- 

 cue 2 pecks, rough stalked poa 2 pecks, ray grass 



1 peck, vernal grass 1 quart, white clover 2 quarts 



marl grass 2 quarts, rib grass 2 ((uarts. 



In the recipes for the various soils, the quantity 



of seed is generally about a busliel per acre. Let 



this be compared with our practice. 



Here it is proper to be observed, that in laying 



down grounds for pastime lands, the English 



select the seeds of such grasses as will come to 



maturity in succession ; but I think they carry 



this scheme to excess, and that there is no neces- 

 sity for a mixture of such a variety of seeds to 



be used for these purposes. In our country the 



most esteemed grasses are white and red clover, 



timothy or herd's grass, the red top, and foul 



meadow. With these some other indigenous 



grasses intermix, the merits of which deserve to 



be investigated. Our bCst grasses for meadows 



are unqiiestionalily the timothy, the red top, and 



foul meadow. The merits of this last mentioned 



grass are not generally known, and I suspect it to \ with a compost of earth, dung and ashes, 



be the best, for low alluvial soils, to be found in 

 our country. It appears to me to be a variety of 

 the red top, Agrostis vulgaris, and preferable to it, 

 being more delicate in its structure, and having 

 leaves more slender, longer and greater abundance. 

 I have been told by an acquaintance from Orange 

 co;inty, that it is chiefly used on the reclaimed 

 drowned lands there, and preferred to all other 

 grasses, and that it yields most abundant crops. I 

 know from my own observation for a number of 

 years, that without any artificial preparation it has 

 gradually supplanted the coarse aquatic grasses, 

 on the lower parts of the low lands at Ithaca. 

 There can be no better hay than that which is 

 made of it. On a rich moist soil, it will grow 

 uncommonly dense, and I should think would 

 yield as much from an acre as any other of the 

 best cultivated grasses. 



In order to tnake a good meadow on a rich soil 

 I would recommend this practice. Destroy all 

 the weeds and natural grasses I ly ploughing, har- 

 rowing, and suitable crops. Prepare the ground 

 by sufficiently pulverizing it, and then sow on it 

 so much timothy seed as that the growth from it 

 shall immediately cover the ground, atleast asthick 

 as a field of flax. This then will give you a clear 

 abundant crop of timothy to the exclusion of ev 

 ery other grass. Or if the ground be inclined to 

 moisture, use foul meadow seed in the same man- 

 ner ; or make use of of a mixture of timothy and 

 foul meadow ; at all events be not sparing of seed, 

 and immediate abundant crops will be the re- 

 ward. Timothy and foul meadow or red toj), I 

 consider as the best of all grasses for our lowland 

 meadows, and the more every other kind is kept 

 out of them the better. Some of the English 

 grasses may be advantageously used in laying 

 down permanent pasture grounds; but white 

 clover and timothy are the best in use among us. 

 Red clover is to be preferred for soiling and en- 

 riching the ground, when fallowing is intended. 

 By tneans of it, with the assistance of gypsum, 

 the poorest soils can be made valuable. 



I have said that too much seed cannot be 

 put into the ground at once. Every body knows 

 what a small quantity is generally used, and how 

 long it is before lauds laid down as pastures or 

 meadows come to perfection, and how they are 

 injured by grasses of spontaneous growth which 

 ought not to be there ; but fbr which the greater 

 part of the surface of the ground is left by the 

 stingy sower. In confirmation of the propriety 

 of these remarks, I will make further quotations 

 from the Complete Grazier. 



" The following [u-opoitions were sown a few 

 years since by the Earl of Darlington: white or 

 Dutch clover 17 lbs., clean l^iy seed 14 bushels, 

 rib grass H lbs., trefoil \h lbs. By which means 

 (the soil being previously ploughed very fine and 

 made perfectly level,) the land was speedily cover- 

 ed with a thick and excellent herbage. The only 

 exceptionable thing in this practice is the quanti- 

 ty of seed, which is certainly too large for a stat- 

 ute acre." 



The last remark, I presume, means an unnec- 

 essary waste of seed, not that the quantity used 

 was an injury to the production of the field. 



" Mr Dalton's mode of laying down land to 

 grass, is to make the ground jjerfectly smooth and 

 then sow upon every acre thelollowing seeds, viz. 

 hay seeds 6 bushels, rib grass 12 Ihs., white or 

 Dutch clover 8 lbs., burnet 5 lbs. He manures it 



thoroughly mixed together, and folds his sheep up- 

 on it, &c. The proportion of seed, however, is 

 still too great, though in other respects his man- 

 agement be excellent. 



" In the laying down of land for the purpose of 

 forming a good meadow, greatly superior to the 

 generality of pastures, the late Mr Curtis recom- 

 mends the following grasses, and two species of 

 clover, to be mixed in the following proportions : 

 meadow fescue grass 1 pint, meadow fox-tail 

 grass 1 pint, rough tailed meadow grass J pint 

 smooth stalked meadow grass i pint, crested dog's 

 tail i pint, sweet scented spring grass J pint, white 

 or Dutch clover i pint, common or red clover 

 h pint. 



" These are to be mixed together, and about 

 three bushels sown on an acre." 



Such appears to be the practice where agricul- 

 ture has been growing towards perfection, aided 

 by all the efforts of man, and the acquisitions of 

 science and experience assiduously and constantly 

 applied for its amelioration, for more than a thous- 

 and years. Now let the practice in our country 

 be considered. With the reflection of this light 

 on it, how most wretched docs itajjpearl 



How far the grasses of Europe are proper^ for 

 our country, ex])erience must decide. We know 

 that one of our best grasses, timothy or herds' 

 grass, cannot be cultivated to advantage in Eng- 

 land, and siiflicient exp-eriments have not been 

 tuade, or if made, not recorded, to ascertain 

 which of the English grasses would be an acqui- 

 sition in our practice of husbandry. Nor have 

 the proper researches yet been made to our pas- 

 turages and meadows, by the introduction of the 

 grasses on which our cattle subsist in their ranges 

 in our forests. For this purpose I would advise, 

 that a botanist should tmn a hors^ or cow, not 

 starved, but with an appetite rather sated, into the 

 woods at a proper season of the year, and observe 

 the grasses which the animal would select for his 

 food. By this means some might be discovered 

 which would make valuable additions to those 

 used with us for our pastures or meadows. 



SUCKERS OJIf IIVDIAN CORN. 



Farmers have been divided in the opinion, 

 whether it was best to deprive Indian corn of the 

 suckers which are given out from the roots, «Sz,c. 

 or not. We have been inclined to the opinioii 

 that it was best, considering them as depriving 

 the kernel of food which it ought to have, and 

 thereby lessening the crop. 



Some statements in the last Cultivator, if cor- 

 rect, prove that it is wrong to cut them off", but 

 that they should be allowed to spindle and be- 

 come matured with the other stalks. Why this 

 should be done will be best understood by stating 

 a few items of the process of fertilizing the seeds 

 of plants. It is a fact, that plants are both male 

 and female, and that the yellow dust or pollen 

 which is produced by a certain part of the flower 

 must be received or a poition of it hy another 

 part of the flower or plant and conveyed to the 

 seeds or they will never come to maturity. Now 

 pollen, in Indian corn, is formed by the spindle, 

 and this must descend upon the silk which is put 

 out from the husk or ear, and be thence conveyed 

 to the seed, and causes it to become matured or 

 ripened. Hence the reason why some rows of 

 corn in an ear or the tips of some ears, have no 

 kernels ; they have not received any pollen. The 

 statement "of the person alluded to is to tho fol- 



