AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 27 



most suitable quantity of seed. S. Germond, H. Worthing- 

 to"-, C. Porter, C. R. Golden, and some others, say that eight 

 quarts of the mixture of clover and timothy seed should be 

 sown on every acre. And colonel J. Carpenter sows six- 

 teen quarts on an acre. He says when the grass and clover 

 grow very thick, it will be more tender feed, and more fine 

 liay, and that it will not run out so soon. But J. Phillips, 

 G. Eddy, and many others, consider four quarts as suffi- 

 cient. 



' All agree that the proportions of the mixture of the 

 seeds should be governed by the nature of the soil : that 

 in a sandy soil three-fourths of the seed should be clover ; 

 in clay loam it should be equal parts ; in clay soil but one- 

 fourth clover seed. 



' There should be at least a bushel of plaster sown on 

 every acre of clover and grass land of a sandy, gravellJ^ or 

 loamy soil. Also on all upland natural meadows. Two 

 bushels per acre are much better than one on sandy or gra- 

 velly soil.' 



Payscn Williams, Esq., of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, who 

 received a premium from the Massachusetts Agricultural so- 

 ciety for the greatest quantity of spring wheat, raised by 

 hhji in the summer of 1822, in giving a description of the 

 mode of culture by him adopted, says, ' The quantity of grass 

 seed used by me is never less than twelve pounds of clover 

 and one peck of herd's grass (timothy) to the acre. Flere, 

 permit me to observe, that innumerable are the instances in 

 this country where the farmer fails in his grass crops by not 

 allowing seed enough ; and, what is worse, the little he does 

 give with a sparing hand is suffered to take its chance un- 

 der that pest of agriculture called the bush harrow, which 

 not only drags stones and other loose matters into heaps, 

 but leaves the soil dead and heavy, and does not cover the 

 seed deep enough to strive with our July drought efTectu- 

 ally.' 



We have, however, been verbally assured by very cor- 

 rect and scientific agriculturists, that six or seven pounds of 

 clover seed, lukere the ground is highly manured, is amply 

 sufficient, and that by exceeding that quantity the plants so 

 shade and stifle each other that there is little substance in 

 the hay made from them. No doubt much depends on the 

 quality and richness of the soil. The poorer the soil the 

 greater the quantity of grass seed. Clover seed of a bright 

 yellow, with a good quantity of the purple and brown color- 



