AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 23 



them well drained. The finer and more nutritious kinds 

 thrive best in moist, though they :vill not live long in wet 

 soils. Hence it is of the first importance to keep the sur- 

 face soil free from standing wate^, by good and sufficient 

 ditches ; and it often becomes necessary, and it is in most 

 cases advisable, on a flat surface, to lay the land in ridges 

 at right angles with the drains. Another precaution to be 

 observed is noc to feed them with stock when the soil is 

 wet and poachy. HarroAving in the fall has been found 

 beneficial to meadows. It destroys mosses, and covers the 

 seeds of grasses which have fallen, or may be sown, and 

 thus produces a continued succession of young plants. In 

 Europe, Kme is used with good effect as a top dressing to 

 grass lands, as are also ashes. With us, tlie annual appli- 

 cation of a bushel of gypsum to the acre is found beneficial. 

 It not only thickens the verdure with clov^.r, but is of ad- 

 vantage in most other grasses. Stable manure should be 

 used only when it can be spared from ths more profitable 

 uses of tillage. When the means abo\'e enumerated fail to 

 insure a good crop of hay, it is time to resort to the plough, 

 and a course of crops. 



3d. Pasture grasses. But few of the grasses most valued 

 in Great Britain for pasture are the natural growth of the 

 United States ; but it is believed that if the seeds are once 

 introduced upon our farms, we shall find little difficulty in 

 naturalizing them. Neither the orchard nor vernal grass, 

 which are said to be indigenous to orr country, are recog- 

 nised in the grass lands which have come within my ob- 

 servation : yet they constitute, with fox tail and tall oat 

 grass, the earliept and most valuable varieties for peren- 

 nial pastures. The meadow fox tail and orchard grass, 

 together with our white clover and green meadow grass, 

 poa trivialis, (which seldom require to be sown,) I think 

 would form the best selection for all grounds which are 

 moderately dry. The rye and oat grasses, or meadow soft 

 grass, might be either substituted for the two first, or com- 

 bined with them. These would afTcrd spring, summer, and 

 fall feed, abundant in quantity and wholesome and nutritious 

 in quality. On wet soils, (though pastures require to be 

 drained, as well as meadows, to insure a rich herbage,) 

 the tall fescue, smooth-stalked meadow, upright bent, and 

 herd's grass, may be introduced to advantage. Gypsum is 

 applied to pastures with the same benefit that it is to mea- 

 dows.' 



