36 ON SEEDING DOWN. 



ON SEEDING DOWN. 



Much discussion has taken place as to the proper 

 season for seeding lands down to grass. It would seem 

 hardly a proper time, in Massachusetts, to sow much in 

 January, but you cannot choose a better month for 

 sowing your clover-seed, provided there is snow enough 

 to show your tracks. Indeed, we may sow this seed 

 in any of the winter months, if the ground was suitably 

 prepared in the autumn. 



Lands that have been planted, and are to be sown 

 with grain, should generally be laid down to grass in 

 the spring season. Sometimes this is delayed till fall, 

 and then the stubble is ploughed in, and the seed is 

 sown on the furrow ; but this seldom succeeds so well 

 as spring sowing. The stubble-ground dries so quick 

 in August, or in September, that much of the seed never 

 vegetates, and much of it often dies after sprouting. 

 This often happens also with spring sowing ; but if 

 you can sow early in spring, you run less risk of losing 

 your seed, than to sow it on stubble-ground. If your 

 land be light, and inclining to sand, you cannot do 

 better than throw twenty bushels of wood-ashes on an 

 acre at the time of sowing, or soon after your grain is 

 up. These draw moisture to your plants, and preserve 

 them better than any article you can apply. 



Ye have heard it said of old, "put ashes on the low 

 land, because they are of a hot and dry nature ; " but 

 we say to you they are the coldest manure you can 

 apply, and that they will keep your dry grounds moist 

 longer than any article you have ever applied. Do you 

 want proof of this ? Set a barrel of dry ashes on the 

 ground^ and in a very short time they all become damp, 

 and they remain so. 



We will say more of ashes in a future number, and 

 do our seeding now. With the exception of stubble- 

 ground, we think fall sowing preferable to spring sow- 



