THE DIFFERENT GRASSES. 209 



thy or herdsgrass being another, not fit to cnt until a certain 

 time ; and these other grasses getting ripe first and shedding 

 their seeds, as a good many of them do, before the later 

 grasses are ready for the mower. The sweet-scented vernal 

 grass very frequently blossoms in May, and several of the 

 other grasses, for instance, spear-grass, or Kentucky blue- 

 grass, get ripe and are ready to be cut before the other 

 grasses, which predominate in the field, are fit to be cut. 

 Therefore, in seeding down our fields to grass, we ought to 

 use the seeds of those grasses which come to perfection about 

 the same time. 



Mr. Lewis. You mean for mowing-lands, not for pastures ? 



Mr. KiLBURN. I mean for mowing-lands ; for pastures, I 

 don't care how many kinds I have ; but, in mowing, we want to 

 take the grasses when they need to be cut. There is a particular 

 time when our grass will be going back, or down-hill, if we 

 do not cut it, and if we can strike it at the right time, we 

 save it. But when there is a range of four or five weeks in 

 the ripening of the difterent species of grass, while one kind 

 is gaining another kind is losing. That subject, I think, has 

 been well presented by the gentleman who has spoken to us 

 on that question, and I think it is one of great importance. 

 MtDst of these grasses that I speak of will come in them- 

 selves, without sowing them. The sweet-scented vernal grass 

 finds its way in. We have not found it on our land a profita- 

 ble crop ; it ripens too early for the other grasses. It is just 

 so with the spear-grass, or Kentucky blue-grass ; it is ripe at 

 a difiereut time from the other grasses, and there is an insect 

 that works upon that grass, unfortunately, just above the up- 

 per joint, and eats the culm oiF close to the top. I suppose 

 all farmers have noticed that fact. 



Dr. Spauluing, of Groton. The idea has just been ad- 

 vanced of summer-fallowing. I think that is a system which is 

 but very little practised in Massachusetts, and I would like to 

 ask Mr. Lewis somewhat of the mode. We all know that in 

 turning up sward-land, it takes some little time to get it into 

 condition, unless we cross-plough it, or plough it several 

 times in the same season. I would ask him if he expects us 

 to plough in the spring or the autumn previous, and the mode 

 of procedure. In Massachusetts, and in this vicinity, farm- 



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