218 



NEW ENGLAND FAR]\rER. 



May 



PHEPAHIJSTQ SOIL FOR A QHA8S CHOP. 



%i 



N making up a hurried re- 

 port of the discussions at 

 the late meeting of the 

 Maine State Board of Ag- 

 riculture, at Lewiston, we 

 were compelled to omit a 

 portion of the many excel- 

 lent opinions stated and 

 facts given. The discus- 

 sion on the grass croj), on 

 the last day of the session, 

 was long and earnest, as 

 that is one of the leading 

 crops of the State. Mr. Secretary Goodale 

 desired to hear more about the preparation of 

 land for grass. The ordinary way involves a 

 great amount of labor in planting to corn or 

 other crops, and afterward sowing to grain 

 and seeding down ; he wished to know if there 

 is a way to seed down directly, using the sod 

 for enriching, as well as other manures ? 



Plaster and ashes are beneficial on many 

 lands ; on others, they are of little use. A 

 crop of clover will leave the land in richer con- 

 dition for grass. Clover hay is an excellent 

 manuiial crop, but if the liquid portion of the 

 manure is not preserved a great part of its 

 value is lost. Clover is not grass, though 

 classed v/ith it by farmers. It has the power 

 of extracting from the ground and air many 

 elements that grasses are not able to obtain 

 though they need them, and thus using clover 

 as a manure has an excellent etFeot upon the 

 grass crop. 



Clover ploughed in green, as a manure, has 

 been successful in some instances ; in others, 

 when turned under in a green condition in hot 

 weather it has been injurious to the land. 

 Therefore it is best to plough clover in after 

 it has somewhat ripened. 



Dr. Gaiicelon, of Lewiston, is in full prac- 

 tice of his profession, but found opportunity 

 to attend three or four sessions of the Con- 

 vention, and took an active part in them. 

 Born and brought up on a farm, and having 

 had the care of one during all his manhood, 

 his early partiality for it had found no abate- 

 ment in the pursuit of his profession as a phy- 

 sician. On the contrary, he turned to the 

 farm with renewed zeal and pleasure as the 

 passing years went over him. 

 He had made many experiments in reclaim- 



ing lands from the forest, from swamps and 

 and barren sapds, and believed that the most 

 obstinate of them all could be profitably 

 brought into a state of high fertility. He took 

 a "run out" farm, but one that had sufficient 

 vitality It ft to grow young pines and birches. 

 These were cut off, and the stumps extracted. 

 The farm was of a clay soil, as is most of the 

 land in Lewiston. 



After the land was cleared of the rubbish, 

 it was ploughed, and liberally manured with 

 twenty ox-cart loads of manure to the acre, 

 which was spread broadcast, and worked in 

 with Share-'s harrow. Then spread 100 bush- 

 els leached ashes per acre, and harrowed with 

 Nishwitz's harrow. After this preparation, 

 the land was planted with potatoes, and pro- 

 duced a crop answering admirably to the work 

 which had been done upon the land, and the 

 liberal dressing it had received. 



After the potatoes were taken off, ploughed 

 again ; manured broadcast in the spring, 

 ploughed again and sowed with barley, two 

 bushels of seed to the acre, and twelve pounds 

 of clover seed and one peck of herdsgrass. 

 The crop of barley was fifty-four bushels per 

 acre. The next year the first crop of grass 

 cut was on the first of July, and gave two tons 

 per acre ; the second cutting was in the mid- 

 dle of August, and gave one and a half tons 

 per acre. His lands were generally treated 

 in this way, and the results, he said, were sat- 

 Isfdctory. The object was to make a grass, 

 or milk farm. By this thorough working, the 

 fields were smooth enough to use any machine 

 upon when the first crop of grass was ready to 

 be cut. He admitted the importance of stable 

 manure, but was of opinion that the farmers 

 of Lewiston could do better than to pay $1: or 

 $5 a cord for it, and haul it, as some do, six 

 miles. A cheaper and better course is by the 

 use of ashes, salt, leaves, muck, plaster, and 

 the use of clover. We spend $40 or $oO for 

 stable manure, when we can fertilize the soil 

 more by turning under clover, and filling it 

 with vegetable matter. He was satisfied that 

 clover is one of our cheapest and best manures. 



Dr. Garcelon stated that, under the treat- 

 ment above described, he had a field of clover 

 which was so heavy that it became suddenly 

 lodged, and required the time of a good mower 

 for several days to cut a single acre. 



The Dr. said his land was rocky. Had fifty 



