138 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 



FoT the New England Parmer. 

 SEEDING LAND TO GRASS. 



I was glad to see a reply elicited to this very 

 important subject, from your correspondent, "C," 

 of North Pembroke. Such communications draw 

 out the opinions of men, though very remotely 

 situated one from another, and can hardly fail to 

 be of some benefit to the farmer. Your corres- 

 pondent admits that I have "some very good ideas 

 in relation to laying down land to grass," but can- 

 not agree with me that "all lands for cultivation 

 should be plowed in the fall." That lands for 

 cultivation should Kot be plowed in the fall, I 

 think is hard to prove. The advantages of turn- 

 ing over sward land in the fall are numerous. 



1. Because there is always a covering of grass 

 then on the ground, which, if turned under in 

 the fall and allowed to remain undisturbed in 

 spring, will be of very great service to the grow- 

 ing corn or potatoes when the roots come in con- 

 tact with it. Here I will remark that the sod 

 should not be moved until pulverized. 



2. Because by plowing in the autumn it has an 

 inevitable tendency to destroy the cut worm, the 

 wire worm, the beetle worm, bugs, <&c. I have 

 seen a field of corn planted in this way, that is, 

 plowed in the fall of the year, having had first 

 spread on the sod, about twenty common buck 

 loads, of about thirty bushels each, of green sta- 

 ble manure, then turned under. Then another 

 field of corn adjoining the same, in fact all the 

 same lot of land, treated the same in every re- 

 spect as near as we could tell, the same amount 

 of manure, &c., but plowed in the spring. The 

 corn on the land plowed in the fall was a great 

 deal larger, hardly any of it destroyed by the cut 

 worm, or any other worm, but on that plowed in 

 the spring the corn was smaller, and a very great 

 amount of it destroyed by the cut worm ; the 

 contrast between the two pieces lying side by side 

 was very apparent indeed. 



3. Because the vegetable matter, if turned un- 

 der in the fall, will become decomposed, and be 

 of more service to the gi'owing crop in the spring 

 and summer following than if turned under in 

 the spring ; this is quite reasonable, for it has 

 more time to decompose in. 



4. Because the farmer has more time and can 

 better attend to it in the fall than in the spring. 

 As to the objection alluded to by your corres- 

 pondent, to "plowing silicious, loamy lands in the 

 fall," I do not see that it can be an objection, if 

 the manure is applied broadcast before plowing, 

 as it always should "be. He does not inform us 

 whether those farmers who plow in the fall, ma- 

 nure in the fall or not ; if they do not the practice 

 is erroneous, we think ; we have often seen farm- 

 ers in this vicinity plow their sward land in the 

 fall, and then cross plow in the spring again, 

 doubling their labor and losing, to a certain ex- 

 tent, the value of the decomposed vegetable mat- 

 ter. 



I admit the force of the argument of his in fa- 

 vor of laying down some kinds of soil in the fall 

 of the year, to grass exclusively. But let us not 

 lose sight of the question at issue, viz. : whether 

 it is best to sow grass seed with some kind of 

 grain or not, because the growing grain shades 

 the land, and thereby facilitates the germination 

 of the grass seed and protects the young grass 

 itself by holding moisture P I answered then, 



and do now, in the affirmative, as a matter of 

 economy, but think the grass may be shaded too 

 much, and said in my former correspondence that 

 it would be hard to demonstrate that a piece of 

 land laid down to grass exclusively would not do 

 as well as laid down in any other way. But there 

 is an objection, furthermore, to seeding land to 

 grass in the fall, if clover is used, on account of 

 its liability to "winter kill." I never could see 

 the economy of cross plowing sward land, as stat- 

 ed above, and think the advantages of letting the 

 sod remain undisturbed until the vegetable mat- 

 ter is decomposed, are not well understood. Al- 

 most any soil, if plowed in the *autumn, will suf- 

 ficiently decompose by the second year, so as to 

 be suitable to lay down to grass and grain, if the 

 sod is not moved, thereby admitting of a rotation 

 of crops, which is very essential. Futher, I think 

 it is not good economy to "keep up" sward land 

 more than two years, as a general rule ; say first, 

 corn ; then follow with some kind of spring grain 

 with grass ; so the rotation would be corn or po- 

 tatoes, oats, barley or rye and grass. I would 

 not plant corn or potatoes twice in succession on 

 the same land, ordinarily. *J. F. 



Uxbridge, March 23, 1864. 



A HINT TO FARMERS. 



The correspondent of the London Star in 

 Schleswig says : "A pleasing phenomenon, which 

 1 had before remarked in every part of the duchies 

 I had hitherto visited, met my eye again on the 

 drive to Christiansfeld. On the outside of every 

 cottage and farmhouse we passed — even, indeed, 

 on many of the trees by the roadside — hung sev- 

 eral little square wooden boxes, rather bigger than 

 a London quartern loaf. In the centre was a 

 small round aperture, large enough for any bird 

 from a wren to a thrush to go in and out. On 

 inquiry I found that these little contrivances were, 

 what they appeared to be, homes for any little 

 pair of warblers which pleased to build their nests 

 in them. Some years back the farmers were just- 

 ly punished for the devastation which, under the 

 influence of false ideas, they had made amongst 

 the feathered tribe, by the vast increase of insect* 

 which played havoc with their crops. Like sensi- 

 ble men, they were no sooner convinced of their 

 error than they did their best to remedy it. So- 

 cieties for the preservation of birds were soon 

 formed ; the farmers everywhere did their best to 

 forward the objects of the association, and bird- 

 murder became a misdemeanor. As the conse- 

 quence of these measures the country is now 

 plentifully stocked with numerous classes of birds. 

 Flocks of crows, ravens, larks, fieldfares, linnets, 

 and yellowhammers, as well as other kinds, are to 

 be seen wherever one drives, and appear to have 

 lost much of their natural timidity under the 

 good treatment they have received of late years." 



^^ The report of the Ohio Commissioners of 

 Statistics shows that in 1862 there were made in 

 tliat State no less than 8,280,000 pounds of sugar. 

 Of this, 27,000 i)Ounds were from sorghum. The 

 aggregate value of the agricultural products of 

 Oliio in 1862 was |151,863,574 ; of this amount 

 the sugar production was worth $822,190, and the 

 molasses crop $1,942,854. 



Happiness is like a pig with a greased tail, 

 which everybody runs after but never can hold. 



J 



