SEEDING ON THE SOD. 221 



land and labor, I think it is a benefit rather than an injury. 

 If any of you who have a piece so full of witch-grass as that, 

 if you will kill those roots, you will have something that will 

 answer the same purpose as manure. To illustrate that, I will 

 state that I raised sixty-four and one-half bushels of winter- 

 rye on one acre of this piece of land that I summer-fallowed, 

 and got a good growth of straw with it. I guess I could not 

 have done that by simply turning the sod over and seeding down. 



Col. Wilder. Has any gentleman had any experience in 

 turning over grass-lands after he has ploughed in the sum- 

 mer with a Michigan plough, harrowing lightly, and seeding 

 down the same season ? 



Mr. Lewis. I can answer that. I have repeatedly turned 

 over a poor sod and have made a fine, nice sod, by seeding at 

 once with the old sod undisturbed. But, if I had land that 

 was foul, either with this witch-grass, Canada thistles, bushes, 

 brakes, or anything that was obnoxious, I should prefer, by 

 all means, this summer-fallowing. It fits the land the most 

 perfectly for the reception of seed of any treatment that I 

 ever saw bestowed upon it, and the crop is almost sure to 

 grow. By summer-fallowing you prepare an immense amount 

 of food for the grasses, and in its most available form for the 

 grass-roots to reach it. There is no loss, I think, of time. 

 When you count a number of years forward, I think there is 

 a gain of at least a year in thorough summer-fallowing. But 

 you can turn laud over and seed it almost any time of the 

 year. I have sowed every month in the year, except Decem- 

 ber, January and February. I sowed grass for several years 

 with crops, supposing that I had got to sow a crop if I sowed 

 grass-seed ; but for twenty years I have not put anything 

 with my grass-seed when I re-sowed it. I give the grass- 

 seed full sweep, and I find that I can seed as late as the 28th 

 of May, and get a very good crop of grass by the 28th of 

 September, turning the sod right over. But, as I said before, 

 I am sorry that this friend of mine regards it as the loss of a 

 whole year. I repeat, I have never seen any treatment of 

 land equal to that of thorough summer-fallowing for a per- 

 manent meadow or permanent ploughing. Nothing that I 

 have ever seen will prepare the land so well. 



Adjourned to half-past seven. 



