GRASSES FOR PASTURES Al^D MEADOWS. 67 



making them fine and compact. The harrowing should 

 be continued until the whole surface is as smooth as a 

 garden, and the soil is quite fine. If the Jand is clayey 

 and lumpy, it should be rolled between the harrowings. 



Sowing the seed alone is preferable. If any grain crop 

 at all IS used, it should be oats in the spring, or buck- 

 wheat early in July, as may be most convenient. Excel- 

 leut seeding has been made early in August with a pound 

 of turnip seed to the acre. This shelters the young grass 

 during the winter ; and dying, the turnips decay in the 

 spring, and afford a most useful fertilizer for the crop. 

 Timothy and clover, orchard grass and clover, or. 

 the three kinds mixed, and orchard grass alone, have 

 been sown in all of these three ways with better results 

 than when sown with fall gram and subjected to the 

 risks of the winter weather. 



In sowing grass and clover seed an even stand is de- 

 sirable, and, to secure this, great care is to be taken in 

 the sowing. A very good practice is to make the last 

 harrowing with great care, evenly, and with the marks 

 all parallel. Then the sower can follow these marks, 

 first taking the edge of the field and returning six short 

 paces distant from the first course ; then returning on 

 the second course, and always sowing with the right 

 hand to the left. Six feet for each cast is as much as 

 can be taken with light seed — as orchard grass, blue 

 grass, red-top, etc. — and as much as should be taken 

 with timothy. The quantity of seed taken may be 

 readily gauged to the width of the cast. The cast is 

 made with each movement of the right foot. When 

 the wind is blowing, even slightly, the casts should be 

 made low to avoid irregular dropping of the seed, and 

 when the light seeds are sown it is easier to walk across 

 the harrow marks, when the tracks made are easily seen ; 

 and as the wind may curry the seed to one side, the 

 sower may go out of the straight track to accommodate 



