24 



Cultivation of the Grasses and 



the fall, the young grass kept back by these 

 weeds should be hardly visible, it must not 

 be concluded that there has been a failure ; 

 wait until the spring and then determine 

 whether it is best or not to put in some other 

 crop. 



MANURES FOR GRASS LAND. 



The best manure is farm-yard manure. 

 Where the supply of this is limited its value 

 may be increased by composting it with rich 

 earth from ditches, woods-mould and ashes ; 

 or the quantity of manure may be incre;ised 

 by composting commercial or chemical ma- 

 nures with the same materials. It should be 

 remembered that ammonia and potash are the 

 dominant wants of the grasses, and phosphate 

 of lime of the clovers and lucerne. 



This compost applied in the winter is valu- 

 able not only on account of the manure, but 

 especially for the mulch that is given to the 

 young grass, protecting it from the severity of 

 the winter and the intense heat of summer. 

 Indeed, if the land be sufficiently rich to cause 

 a full stand of grass, this subsequent top-dress- 

 ing is really more valuable than if the ma- 

 nure had been incorporated with the soil at 

 the time of sowing. This top-dressing should 

 be applied only in dry weather. 



If no stock is allowed to graze a meadow 

 after it has been cut until toward Christmas, 

 and if the meadow consist of grasses which 

 bear a full aftermath, as in the case with or- 

 chard, meadow-oat and blue-grass, and if the 

 stock grazing it are not removed at night, such 

 a meadow will continue to improve. This is 

 not the case with a Timothy and Herd's grass 

 meadow, as they leave very little second 

 growth or aftermath. They should receive a 

 top-dressing at least every three years. If the 

 farm does not produce the manure, the farmer 

 should buy it. An acre of land that will yield 

 two tons of hay worth $60, well deserves a 

 triennial application of $10 worth of purchas- 

 ed fertilizer. It will pay better than the same 

 application to cotton land, taking into the ac- 

 count the cost of culture. 



The cheapest manure for grass land is water 

 by means of irrigation. But the limits of this 

 little Manual will not allow a detailed ac- 

 count of this cheap and important process 

 The reader who is interested in it is respect- 

 fully referred to a Prize Essay on that subject 

 by the writer, which was published in the 

 Plantation, Atlanta, 1871. 



WHETHER TO SELL HAY OR TO FEED IT. 



This depends upon our locality and the 

 price we can get for our hay. If hay sells for 

 $30 or $35 per ton, a farmer who lives near a 

 market would be very foolish to feed that hay 

 to cattle, provided he will invest a portion of 

 the proceeds of the hay in chemical or com- 

 mercial fertilizers. In our mild winters a cow 

 will eat five hundred pounds of hay, and much 



more if it be given to her. But after the run 

 of the fields five hundred pounds of hay will 

 sustain her until grass springs. This five 

 hundred pounds of hay would sell for six or 

 seven dollars. If we deduct trouble of hous- 

 ing and hauling, the manure of this covr is 

 not worth the six or seven dollars. If she be 

 fed on winter pastures, that is another affair. 

 The question now is between the value of 

 a given amount of hay, merchantable at a 

 given price, and the valueof a winter's 

 manure of a cow. Six or seven dollars, 

 worth of a suitable fertilizer will go furher 

 in improving a meadow than the manure 

 of one cow, unless extraordinary expense 

 is incurred and care bestowed in providing 

 litter, muck and tanks for liquid manure. 

 But in determining this question of compara- 

 tive profit, it must be quite certain that the 

 man who sells the hay buys the six or seven 

 dollars' worth of fertilizer. If he does not, 

 it will be better for him- to feed his hay, no 

 matter what price it will bring in market, for 

 his meadow must have manure 



It isVery clear that if we take more from 

 land than we give to it, we are ripping up the 

 goose. A very small leak will empty a bar- 

 rel in time, unless we continue to pour into it. 

 A crop of hay takes so much of a variety of 

 salts from the ground. If we do not return 

 an equivalent, our crops will annually dimin- 

 ish- If we wish them to increase, we must 

 return more than an equivalent. This is only 

 common sense. 



This comparison is made only as to the 

 value of the manure of the domestic animals 

 when fed with hay. There may be a special 

 value in beef or butter, or in'mule or horse 

 colts which would modify it. It is important 

 not to be misunderstood. When hay is at a 

 high price and the market is near, it is cheap- 

 er to spend some of the hay money for ma- 

 nure than to trust to the cow fed on hay 

 simply as a manure-making animal. 



It is not designed to decrease the number of 

 horses, cattle or sheep, but to point to the fact 

 that hay at present prices is too expensive a 

 food to feed them with when they can be fed 

 much more cheaply, and that is by means of 

 winter pastures, which cost nothing after the 

 first outlay, and continually improved by judi- 

 cious grazing. 



The present prices of hay, $30 to $35, will 

 probably continue for along time in the plan- 

 tation States. Under our former system the 

 planter could pull an excess of fodder and sell 

 it at a small profit at $1 per hundred pounds. 

 Now if he sold fodder pulled by our present 

 hired labor at $30 per ton, it would be a 

 losing business. 



There are a vast number of horses and cows 

 in our cities and elsewhere belonging to non- 

 producers, which consume bought forage. 

 This number is yearly increasing with the 

 increase of our non-producing population. 



