TO MANAGE GRASS LAND. 167 



in Middlesex or Essex ; the only difficulty is, that you under- 

 take to raise grass on too much land. You can raise more 

 grass on one acre than two, if you desire, and then you have 

 got your land in as good condition as it would have been if you 

 had grass on the two acres. There are two ways of managing 

 grass land. One is, after having fed your grass land in the 

 autumn so long that the grass crop begins to fail, give it that 

 rotation of crops which Prof. Stockbridge has talked about this 

 morning. Plough it and give it a potato crop the first year, if 

 you like, but give it a corn crop the year before you put it into 

 grass again. Grass will follow a corn crop better than any other 

 crop in the world, partly on account of that mechanical man- 

 ipulation of the soil to which Prof. Stockbridge alludes, and 

 partly on account of the fact that it does not deprive the soil of 

 those fertilizers which the grass itself requires. You cannot 

 follow mangel-wurzel or turnips well with grass ; corn is the 

 crop that should precede the seeding down to grass. So far as 

 my experience and observation in Massachusetts go, you can 

 restore your grass land in that way, by a rotation of crops. 

 Plough your land in the spring, and seed down, when you do 

 seed down, not with wheat, oats or rye, but with barley. You 

 will get a better sod, and of course a better crop. That is one 

 way. 



But grass lands are heavy, or apt to have a great deal of clay. 

 That kind of land, if manipulated in hot weather, sometimes 

 becomes baked. At any rate, there is a great deal of valuable 

 grass land in Massachusetts in which you do not want a rotation 

 of crops, as a mere matter of expense. Plough those lands in 

 the middle of August, give them a good top-dressing, harrow in 

 your manure, and seed them with herdsgrass and redtop, and 

 the next spring add a little sprinkling of clover, and you can 

 raise a grass crop just as well as any other crop. This is a 

 good way ; and although the land may be heavy, the grass 

 comes in at a time when it is dry and easily managed. 



You must rotate upon the turnip crop, upon the mangel- 

 wurzel crop, upon the carrot crop, upon the potato crop, upoli 

 the cabbage crop ; — must you upon the corn crop ? How many 

 years do you suppose a field would remain fertile in corn ? A 

 good many years, give it barnyard manure enough. 



Mr. Slade. How is it with the onion crop ? 



