MANAGEMENT OF MEADOWS. 247 



are removed is better, and sow with peas. When this crop 

 is in full bearing let on both hogs and sheep, and it will 

 amply repay all its preparation by the manner in which the 

 stock will thrive, and they will again bestow on it a cover- 

 ering of fine manure. Now the ground is well manured 

 and fully capable of giving, in return for the care bestowed, 

 a bountiful crop the first year. Of course it must be again 

 broken and pulverized as before mentioned. This not only 

 pays better than letting it lie in fallow, but it keeps down 

 weeds. When ground is fallowed, there will be generally 

 an interval of neglect, and the weeds, ever watchful for a 

 chance, will spring up, mature their seeds and sow them, to 

 the trouble and vexation of the farmer afterward. 



SELECTION OF SUITABLE SEEDS AND BEST METHOD OF 

 MIXING THEM. 



Whatever the character of the soil to be converted into 

 a meadow, a suitable grass will be found in our list. There 

 are grasses for rocky land, sandy land, bottom land, upland, 

 or calcareous land, and we cannot do better than to refer 

 the reader to the large list from which to select, as the kind 

 of land to which they are adapted is clearly shown in each 

 descriptive article. 



It is well known to every farmer that some grasses will 

 not thrive on certain characters of soil. What grasses to 

 sow must be left to the judgment of the farmer, as only 

 an extended experience will be able to show under every 

 circumstance the peculiarities of the land to be sown. Un- 

 der certain conditions, too, it may be preferable to put the 

 land down in clover, whatever kind of soil it may be, espe- 

 cially is this the case where the land from long cultivation 

 is not in good heart. It must be remembered that, if a 

 field has, by long-continued cultivation, without rotation, 

 been so reduced in fertility that it will not produce re- 

 munerative crops, it will not produce any kind of grass in 

 paying quantities, until some of its vitality has been re.' 



