MANAGEMENT OF MEADOWS. 249 



avail himself of these fertilizing qualities by the aid of such 

 substances as embody them in their own growth. In this 

 way he is able to secure them and place them back in the soil. 



After the selection of the kinds of grass to be sown the 

 next consideration is to select good seed. How often has it 

 occurred to every farmer to see the result of all his toil and 

 expense culminate in failure for want of good seed! It does 

 not always occur to the sower that his seeds are defective 

 through age, or through mixing noxious seeds with the 

 grass seeds. The high price that seeds command is a great 

 temptation to the dishonest dealer. Sometimes it happens 

 that good seeds are kept until they have lost their power of 

 germinating. If it be possible, it is far better to save seed 

 from the farm itself. It involves but little care to do so> 

 and is an actual saving to the farmer, and then he knows 

 what he is sowing. Should it be necessary, however, to buy 

 seeds, always delay a few days to test them. This is easily 

 done by placing a certain ascertained number on a wet cloth, 

 folded several times to retain moisture, and covering them 

 over with a single thickness of the same. Keep the cloth 

 damp a few days and the good ones will swell up and 

 sprout while the defective ones will be covered over with 

 mould. Count the sprouts, and by an easy computation, 

 one can then ascertain the proportion of good seeds. Then 

 sow in the proportion and there will be no difficulty in 

 securing a stand. The wisdom of this precaution may be 

 known when it is stated that nearly all the grass seeds are 

 worthless at the end of three years, only a small proportion 

 of them germinating. Even clover seeds that will keep 

 their vitality when in the ground, and covered up, will 

 lose this vitality in four or five years, if exposed to the 

 atmosphere. The millets are scarcely worth sowing after 

 the second year. The selection of the species being deter- 

 mined on, the next consideration is the propriety of mixing 

 or sowing alone, and in this connection, the best argument 

 in favor of mixing should be taken from nature. 



