234 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



and if a good catch is not obtained, the land is at once 

 plowed again after grain-harvest and reseeded with 

 grass only. A failure in having one's new-stocked 

 mowings well set with grass, is a great disappoint- 

 ment and vexation, and the best relief is found in 

 plowing and rcseeding again the first fit opportuni- 

 ty. These remarks upon laying land down to grass 

 have exclusive reference to stubble land, and not 

 to the plowing and reseeding of mowings after hay- 

 ing, for the purpose of renewing them. 



Oats are a hardy crop for one's own feeding 

 purposes, command a good and readycash price in 

 market, and therefore are quite generally sown ; 

 but if the land is to be stocked to grass at the same 

 time, and a good catch is to be principally consid- 

 ered, they are not as good a crop to sow]as barley. 

 If they grow stout, they shade and choke the 

 young grass too much ; and if they lodge they fall 

 flat upon the ground, smothering and killing the 

 grass ; but barley gives the grass a better chance 

 for growth, and if it lodges, it rather crinkles or 

 doubles over than falls flat, so that the young grass 

 maintains a stand in the soil. I have sometimes 

 been led to observe quite a superiority in my first 

 hay-crop after seeding with barley over that after 

 oats ; and the result may probably be attributed 

 to the fact that the young grass got better foothold 

 so as to more completely occupy the soil in the for- 

 mer than in the latter case. 



I have found peas and oats a valuable crop, par 

 ticularly for early autumnal feeding of fattening- 

 swine, and generally for any stock at any time. I 

 usually sow one and one-half bushel of peas, and 

 two bushels of oats to the acre, which makes about 

 the right mixture of straw to stand up pretty well 

 while growing, and of grain for feeding. Some of 

 my crops from this seeding have been very luxuri- 

 ant and profitable. Year before last, I obtained 57 

 bushels of grain and agreat quantity of straw from 

 a little less than one acre, and considered it the 

 most profitable grain-crop raised that year, from 

 that quantity of land. If the crop of peas and oats 

 is very stout, it cannot be cradled, and must there- 

 fore either be cut with the sickle or scythe. I pre- 

 fer reaping to mowing, because the crop is easier 

 cured, handled in carting, and threshed, and takes 

 less barn-room. It would not be advisable to sow 

 grass-seed with peas and oats, for the latter are too 

 smothering to the young grass ; but the stubble 

 may be plowed in and the grass-seed sown in the 

 fall. 



In stocking hind to grass, the seed should be 

 strown broadcast with a liberal hand. There is no 

 economy at all, in sprinkling it over the ground. 

 If sown bountifully, foul stuff will be shut out, the 

 quality of the hay Avill be fine, the sward will be 

 thick and firm, and when plowed under for the next 

 rotation, will return a heavy coat of vegetable mat- 

 ter in its roots and stems to the soil, enriching it 

 and nourishing the succeeding crops. 



The more general sowing of white clover-seed is 

 confidently recommended. If land is in good heart 

 at the time of stocking it to grass, white clover 

 sown witli the other grass-seeds will thicken up 

 the bottom of mowings, growing some eight or ten 

 inches high and in a thick mat, "and the burden of 

 hay will prove much heavier than it seemed likely 

 to be before mowing. Soon after the practice of 

 sowing white clover on the tillage-fields commences, 

 the plant will begin to show itself in various places 

 on the farm, and ultimately gets pretty well scat- 



tered over the pastures, as it seeds very profusely, 

 and the seeds are carried from place to place in the 

 manure and otherwise. The price of the seed per 

 pound in market is high ; but then one pound of it 

 will seed more land, than two pounds of red clover 

 seed ; so that in fltct the former is the cheaper seed 

 of the two, for an acre. 



Red-top, red clover and white clover seeds, sown 

 together, produce a quality of hay universally rel- 

 ished by stock. My practice is, to seed all dry 

 sandy and gravelly lands with this mixture. The 

 red and white clover pretty much make the crop 

 the first year; the second year, the red clover be- 

 gins to disappear, and the red-top to take its place; 

 and after that, the red-top and white clover have 

 full possession and make the very best hay for 

 horses or oxen, milch cows or young stock, that I 

 have been able to produce. The crop per acre, as 

 compared with herds-grass, is not so bulky ; but 

 tested by weight and by spending quality in the 

 winter, it is much the most valuable. 



Herds-grass hay grown on m(jist uplands or re- 

 claimed meadows, and swamps of a mucky soil, or 

 lands not over-charged with silica, is of good qual- 

 ity ; but when grown on sandy and gravelly soils 

 abounding in silex, the stalks are hard, Aviry,coat- 

 ed with silicates as with glass, and neither horses 

 or cattle will eat it as well, or thrive as well on 

 it as on hay made of jred-top and clover ; and as for 

 milch cows, they winter badly on it, and do not 

 give out the milk as when fed on softer and more 

 succulent hay. Still, it is a valuable grass for hay 

 on other kinds of soil ; particularly valuable for 

 stocking down reclaimed peat meadows, and 

 swamps of mucky soil ; for these lands are general- 

 ly more or less deficient in those matters which 

 give strength of stem to the crop ; and herds-grass 

 while by its disposition toattain a stiS'stem, thrives 

 and stands up straight on such land, till harvest, 

 yet makes succulent and nutritive hay, because it 

 cannot appropriate a redundance of silicious mat- 

 ter as in the other soils alluded to. For similar 

 reasons it makes good hay on all soils not over 

 abounding in silica. 



I intended at the commencement of these obser- 

 vations, to say something upon planted crops and 

 upon root crops ; but as my remarks have already 

 attained too great length, I will bring them to a 

 close with Que observation upon planting corn, 

 namely; when planted on dry, loose, land, it is 

 best to cover the seed from two to three inches 

 deep, so that if very dry weather succeeds imme- 

 diatety after planting, the germination may pro- 

 ceed, and the young sprout not become withered 

 by heat and drought ; and indeed on all land suit- 

 able for corn, it is generally safest, one year with 

 another, to cover the seed pretty well in planting, 

 so that if a frost succeeds after the corn is up, the 

 vitality of the plant may be preserved by the ex- 

 tra covering of earth. If planted quite shallow, 

 the crop is liable to fail, both from drought and 

 frost. F. H. 



Brattleboro\ 7;!. ^pn7 2, 1853. 



To Cure Sheep Skin with the Wool on. — Take 

 one spoonful of alum and two of saltpetre ; pul- 

 verize and mix well together, then sprinkle the 

 powder on the flesh side of the skin, and lay the 

 two flesh sides together, leaving the wool outside. 

 Then fold up the skins as tight as you can, and 

 hang them in a dry place. In two or three days, 



