AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 1S9 



the manure, particularly that part which was collected from 

 the sty, has scarcely any other effect than to ass'st the sun 

 in scorching the grass. In the mean time the arable land, 

 being- left destitute of manure for the sake of dunging the 

 grass ground, yields not half a crop. The poor farmer be- 

 lieves his land worn out, and thinks it high time to ' pk.cic 

 up stakes and be off to the Ohio !' 



Unless you have plenty of manure, you had better not ap- 

 ply any dung to your high, gravelly, or sandy soils, but dress 

 them with plaster of Paris. Uneven grass grounds will not 

 admit of top-dressing to any advantage, on account of the 

 manure's being liable to be washed away. 



Previous to manuring your grass lands, it will be well to 

 harrow or scarify them. ' Rolling was formerly considered 

 to be indispensable in the management of grass lands, tending 

 to smooth and consolidate the surface, to p^revent the for- 

 mation of ant-hills, and to render the effects of drought less 

 pernicious. But scarifying i\iQ X\xt^ \\ii\\ a plough, consist- 

 ing only of coulters, or with a harrow so that the whole sur- 

 face may be cut or torn, is to be recommended when the 

 pastures [or mowing land] are hidebound. That tenacious 

 state rolling tends to increc.se ; whereas by scarifying the 

 surface is loosened, and the roots acquire new means of im- 

 proved vegetation. This operation seems particularly use- 

 ful when it precedes the manuring of grass lands ; for if 

 well scarified, the ground is so opened, that any manure 

 spread upon it gets at once to the roots ; consequently a small 

 quantity thus applied, goes as far as a larger one laid on in 

 the old mode, and without such an operation. Thus the 

 force of the objections to the application of putrescent ma- 

 nure to grass laads is in some degree obviated.'"^ After 

 such process it may be well to sow grass seeds, to produce 

 a new set of plants, and supersede the necessity of breaking 

 up the soil to prevent its being ' hound out,'' as the phrase is. 



It is a bad practice to feed your mowing land very closely 

 in the fall. There should be enough of the after grass left 

 to protect the roots of the grass against the frosts of winter. 

 We have known good farmers who would not suffer their 

 mowing land to be pastured ?t any time of the year. But 

 if the soil be well dressed with manure it can do but little 

 or any injury to pasture it in the fore part of autumn, taking 



*Code of Agriculture. 



