THE OX AND THE DAIRY 173 



If the soil is fit for turnips, no better crop can be sown to 

 prepare for the grass seeds, which should be sown without a 

 corn crop, except where the sun is powerful, and the seed is 

 sown late in spring : but autumn is by far the best season for 

 sowing grass seeds for permanent pasture. Turnips of an early 

 kind may be sown in May, and fed off with sheep in August or 

 September; and the ground being only very slightly ploughed, 

 or rather scarified, and harrowed fine, the seeds may be sown 

 and rolled in. The species of grass sown must depend on the 

 nature of the soil ; but it is impossible to be too choice in 

 the selection. That mixture of chaff and the half-ripe seeds 

 of weeds, commonly called hay seeds, which is collected from 

 the stable lofts, should be carefully rejected, and none but 

 speeds ripened and collected on purpose should be sown. The 

 Trifolium ripens (white clover), the Trifolium medium (cow- 

 grass), Medicago lupinula (trefoil), Lolium perenne (rye-grass), 

 the poas and festucas, are the best kinds of grasses. Avery easy 

 way of obtaining good seed is to keep a piece of good meadow 

 shut up from cattle early in spring, carefully weeding out any 

 coarse grasses, and letting the best arrive at full maturity ; 

 then mow and dry the crop, and thrash it out upon a cloth. 

 This will give the best mixture of seeds ; but some of the 

 earliest will have been shed, and these should be collected 

 separately, or purchased from the seedsmen. Before winter 

 the ground will already be covered with a fine green, if the 

 seed has been plentiful. The quantity per acre of the mixed 

 seeds should not be less than thirty or forty pounds to insure 

 a close pile the next year. If the soil is not naturally rich, 

 liquid manure, or urine diluted with water, should be carried 

 to the field in a water-cart, and the young grass watered with 

 it. This will so invigorate the plants that they will strike and 

 tiller abundantly. They should be fed off by sheep but not 

 too close. The tread cf the sheep and their urine will tend 

 to make the pile of grass close ; and the year after this the 

 new pasture will only be distinguished from the old by its 

 verdure and freshness. 



Butter is the fat or oleaginous part of the milk of various 

 animals, principally of the domestic cow. The milk of the 

 cow is composed of three distinct ingredients, the curd, the 

 whey, and the butter ; the two first form the largest portion, 

 and the last the most valuable. The comparative value of the 

 milk of different cows, or of the same cows fed on different 

 pastures, is estimated chiefly by the quantity of butter con- 



