148 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



to their use as a manure, in common, raw earth. 

 The most soluble of ordinary manures, it is soon 

 dissipated by atmospheric action, and leaves on the 

 soil to which it has been applied a raw earth, in its 

 then condition injurious to it. .1 find it far more 

 beneficial to bury the fish in turf and in turf ashes, 

 seven loads to one of fish (in Loudon, it is said, of 

 turf alone, even 20 to 1), which the decay of the fish 

 will make an excellent and very powerful manure, 

 and one which will endure long after the fish will 

 have done their office in the soil and disappeared.* 



W. A. SEKLY. 



Wheat- Sheaf Farm, Staten Island, Jan. 18, 1839. 



CHAPTER VI. 



IMPROVEMENT OF GRASS-LANDS. 



Of Pasture. Of Meadow. On converting Arable or Plough 

 Land into Permanent Meadow or Pasture. Report on Grass 

 es and Grass-Lands. 



ALTHOUGH the alternation of grass and grain crops 

 is deemed most profitable, on soils and in situations 

 which will admit of this kind of husbandry, yet there 

 are many situations in which this alternate change 

 cannot be carried into effect without manifest preju- 

 dice to the interests of the cultivator. There are 

 some soils so natural to grass as to yield an uiuii- 

 minished product for many years, almost without 

 care or expense. There are others, upon the banks 

 of streams which frequently overflow, which it is 



* For much valuable information on the use of lime an a ma- 

 nure, seo the very full and able article by M. Pnvis. in C'liym- 

 istry applied to Agriculture, p. 20J, tt teq., published by Haipw 

 & Brother*. 



