64 TRANSACTIONS. 



ground will produce, as we are careful to avoid those which are un- 

 suitable. 



In regard to the preparation of the soil for grass, the common 

 practice is much more faulty. Indeed, I am persuaded that herein 

 lies our chief defect. Our rotation hardly ever comprises more than 

 two cultivated crops ; unless an exception is made, in favor of the 

 meadows, which are often kept up for a much longer time. These 

 two crops are, generally, corn or potatoes, followed by rye, oats or 

 wheat, wdth grass seeds. Now, if the object is, as it should be, to 

 induce a good growth of grass, I contend that the means are inade- 

 quate to the end. Grass seeds, in order to take well, require a finely 

 pulverized surface, made light and warm with manure ; and the old 

 sod should be entirely decomposed or buried. This, it is quite im- 

 possible to do on ordinary soils, in one year and with only two plow- 

 ings. The second plowing brings up the old turf — an inert, sour 

 mass ; w^hich, at that particular stage of decomposition of all others, 

 is the most unfit to afford the nourishment, that the plants need. 

 Without making any pretence to actual knowledge, never having had 

 analyzed a piece of sod in this half-rotted condition, I have adopted 

 the following theory, which has at least the merit of agreeing with 

 the facts in the case. All vegetable matter goes through three stages 

 of fermentation ; similar to what in liquids are called the vinous, the 

 acetous and the putrid. When a sod is inverted, as by the plow in 

 the first season, it passes through the vinous fermentation. During 

 this period, it throws off some gases, which are beneficial to the 

 growing crop. Cold weather arrests the progress of decomposition 

 and it passes into the acetous state. It now very much resembles, in 

 its general character, the muck fresh from thp swamp. It A\-ill grow 

 most luxuriant crops of sorrel, wild Avormwood or smart weed ; but, 

 as for grass, you might about as well expect to raise it upon an Afri- 

 can desert, as iipon land in such a condition. Our cultivated grasses 

 are remarkably sweet. How, then, can we expect these to grow upon 

 a sour or bitter soil ? No wonder that we are doomed to disappoint- 

 ment, if we will thus persist in our attempts to contravene the laws 

 of nature. If you ask what is the remedy for the evil, I answer, 

 prolong the course of your rotation, until the vegetable matter in the 

 soil has passed into a putrid, or dissolving state. Then, it v.'ill be 

 easily taken up and used by the minute songcolcs of the grass roots 

 and so assimilate itself with the plants. But more of this hereafter. 



A third general principle mentioned above was, that due regard 

 should be had to the place that each crop occupies in the course. 



