ON SEEDING DOWN. 37 



ing. We are not obliged to go through the tedious 

 and unprofitable process of planting and hoeing our low 

 grounds in order to renovate and bring them into grass 

 again. We have a shorter, less expensive method. 

 You all have lands too low to be planted at a profit. 

 You therefore suffer these to lie from year to year, 

 yielding nothing that will pay for whetting your scythe. 

 You dread to meddle with such land, as we once did ; 

 for, after you have planted it, and obtained half a crop, 

 you could not lay it down smooth for the hard lumps it 

 contained, or for the mire in the hollows. Such land, 

 if not too rocky, may be directly brought into excel- 

 lent grass, without summer fallowing, or losing a crop. 

 In the last week in August, if you have several acres 

 to turn, you must begin to ploiigh. Do not take a 

 rooter, or a plough not longer than a hog's snout, but 

 take one that has some length in the waist — the ladies 

 now think they have been to an extreme in short 

 waists — take one that will take up a slice and lay it 

 down again completely the other side up. Let all the 

 grass be turned in ; we want it there for manure. We 

 have such ploughs, and we advise you to look them 

 up. As soon as you have ploughed one acre, put on a 

 dozen loads of your fine manure which you have been 

 preparing through the summer, and, |irst having rolled 

 down your furrows close, spread your manure evenly, 

 harrow the ground thoroughly lengthwise of the fur- 

 row, then a little diagonally, but never crosswise. In 

 a short time you will make the acre hke a carrot-bed. 

 Then sow a peck of herds-grass, and a bushel of red- 

 top seed, before the ground has time to dry^ and cover 

 the seed with a ^bush-harrow. It will vegetate much 

 sooner for sowing on a fresh furrow : it is no more like- 

 ly to be winter-killed than seed sown in spring. As 

 soon as it is so late that seeds will not vegetate, you 

 may sow on eight pounds of clover-seed, or less, if you 

 would like a lot of fall feed the next year ; and clover 

 thus sown will not be much in the way of your other 

 4* 



