AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 185 



this growth, weeds luxuriate amazingly in the young seeding 

 of grasses and clovers. When the weeds reach a height of six 

 inches, the mower should be put into the field with the cutter 

 bar set about four inches high. It is very light, rapid work 

 trimming off the weeds, and the field is then most attractive 

 in its even carpet of green. The young grass and clover 

 plants are hurt far iebs by this mowing than are the weeds, 

 and, their leaves shooting up, overtop the weeds, and hiding 

 them from the sun choke them down. Sometimes, the mow- 

 ing of the weeds must be repeated." 



From the above it is readily seen that the average grass 

 lands of New Hampshire, in order to produce a crop of grass 

 and clover without a protective crop, must be judiciously 

 handled. 



An experiment was undertaken in the spring of 1897 on 

 land that had been thoroughly cultivated with ensilage corn 

 the two preceding years, and therefore was fairly clean. The 

 ground was plowed and dressed with a fair coating of barn- 

 yard manure, supposed to be above the average as regards 

 purity from weed seeds. It was worked in with a cutaway 

 harrow. The soil was a heavy clay, but fairly well-drained, 

 somewhat rolling; typical of the grass lands of this section. 

 The following mixture of grass seed was used per acre: 5 

 pounds of alsike clover, 7 pounds choice red clover, 5 pounds 

 of red-top and 12 of timothy or herd^s-grass. A large plot 

 of this, extending across the field, was staked off, and the re- 

 mainder sown to barley, as a nurse crop, at the rate of three 

 pecks per acre. 



The season was favorable for grass, and on July 16, the bar- 

 ley was cut and cured for fodder. Figure 2 is a half-tone 

 from a photograph taken on the above date, and shows the 

 comparative heights of the two seedings. The measuring 

 stake in the center of the photograph stands upon the divid- 

 ing line of the two plots. The grass in the barley, as can be 

 seen in the cut, had made an excellent growth, being a foot 

 high and very heavy. The grass grown without the barley, 

 as shown in the fore part of the photograph, was much 



