VARIOUS MIXTURES. 277 



very different mixtures, both as regards the species and 

 the relative quantities of each, will be desirable for 

 different soils ; that different mixtures would be required 

 for alternate cropping or laying down land for only a year 

 or two, and for permanent pasture. In our practice it 

 is most common to seed down for some years, and not 

 unfrequently this is done with the design of cutting the 

 grass for hay for a few years, and then pasturing the 

 field, in which case our seeding down assumes the char- 

 acter of laying down for permanent pasturage. 



Equally good, but very different mixtures, might 

 be made, also, for the same soils, by different indi- 

 viduals who had different objects in view, some desir- 

 ing a very early crop, some wishing to select spe- 

 cies which resist the access of profitless weeds, and 

 others to cultivate those varieties which exhaust the 

 soil the least. Each of these mixtures may be best 

 adapted to the specific object of the farmer who makes 

 it, and, if composed of a sufficient number of species, 

 may be good, and truly economical. 



The practice with many farmers has already been 

 alluded to as consisting usually of one bushel or twelve 

 pounds of redtop, a half a bushel or twenty-two pounds 

 of Timothy, and from four to six or eight pounds of 

 clover. The practice of many good farmers varies but 

 little from this mixture. 



For a permanent pasture mixture, it is highly import- 

 ant to bear in mind that such species should be 

 selected as blossom at different periods, in order to 

 secure, as far as possible, a luxuriant growth through 

 the season ; and some grasses may be used which are 

 valuable mainly for their early growth, with less regard 

 to their nutritive value than in mixtures for field culture. 



For such a mixture, we might select the following as 

 an example : 



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