SEEDING TO GRASS. 247 



tributed, less seed will be required. For sowing by a machine, 

 the seeds should 1)8 well cleaned and freed from leaves and straws 

 and the machine frequently examined to see that the seed is pass- 

 ing through evenly. 



Where the soil is loamy, sandy, or light, it is an excellent plan 

 to roll the surface after seeding. This process brings the soil in 

 close contact with the seed and renders it more likely to germinate. 



Seeding by Inoculation. — This is rarely practiced, but has 

 sometimes been resorted to in England. It consists in cutting 

 ropes of turf from an old jiasture, and these are chopped up into 

 pieces about 1^ by 2 inches. They are placed by hand about 

 nine inches apart over the ground. This is for meadow what 

 sodding is for a lawn. The results are quick and sure, but rather 

 expensive. 



Quack grass, Bermuda grass, and .Johnson grass are often 

 seeded by scattering or planting fragments of tlie rootstalks, 

 either with a hoe or by dropping in part of tlie furrows as the 

 field is plowed. 



Seeding Orass with Grain. — The following was prepared 

 by John J. Thomas, of Xew York : " Tlie most rapid way of 

 obtaining a grass crop is to sow the grass seed alone without any 

 grain. If done early in the spring, on clean, well prepared 

 ground, we may get a cut of hay the same year, usually about two- 

 thirds of a full crop, and a heavy one the second year. It will 

 make a vast difference wliether we sow plenty of seed or only a 

 small quantity. We have sown a mixture of Timothy and clover 

 at the rate of a bushel per acre, and had about twice as heavy a 

 crop as that afforded by a scant seeding of less than a peck jier 

 acre. It is very important to have it covered with good, mellow 

 earth, buried at a dej^tli not greater than five or six times its 

 largest diameter. To grow freely, one-fourth to one-half an incn 

 is deep enough in moist soil, but clover will germinate and a 

 grow at a depth of an inch. Much will depend on the mellow- 



