1861. 



THE ILLmOIS FARMER. 



9 



have innumerable failures with old seed. 

 Grass seed needs no harrowino; after sowino;, 

 but it must bo sown before the frost ceases 

 to pulverize the surface. After the ground 

 is settled, a roller should be passed over the 

 field to more perfectly pulverize the surface, 

 for such small seeds as the grasses require 

 that the soil be in very fine tilth. On the 

 greyish white soils of Egypt, south of the 

 T. H. & Alton Kailroad, it is highly impor- 

 tant to sow early, as the heat of the sun on 

 this soil is such that unless the plants are 

 well rooted before the season is much ad- 

 vanced, they are pretty sure to be killed by 

 heat and drouth ; we think this will account 

 to our southern friends for their oft repeat- 

 ed loss of seed. In the central and north 

 part of the State, Spring Wheat is pro- 

 bably the most convenient and best of 

 all our crops to seed with. It is sown so 

 early that the grass and clover is well start- 

 ed during the cool moist days of spring, 

 and as the grain gives it only a partial 

 shading, it continues to grow, and will often 

 be fouiid covering the ground with a thick 

 mat of grass, and much of it headed out at 

 the time of harvest, and after harvest, pro- 

 duces a large amount of teed. Not so when 

 grown with the oat crop, with which, if it 

 survives, it makes but a feeble growth. In 

 sowing with spring wheat, it should be 

 sown after the harrowing is complete and 

 rolled. Barley, for the same reason, is also 

 a valuable crop to seed with. Hungarian 

 Grass and Buckwheat are worthless for this 

 purpose, The lateness of the sowing and 

 their dense foliage is destructive of the 

 grass and clover seed. Some persons prac- 

 tice seeding in August and the first of Sep- 

 tember, by plowing the stubble, but this 

 practice we look upon as expensive, and not 

 as certain in its results as early seeding 

 with winter and spring wheat, or with bar- 

 ley. 



GRASS SEED AS A CROP. 



Has become one of the great staples of the 

 State, and for its superior quality is much 

 sought after. The absence of Canada thist- 



les, white daisy and other pernicious seed, is 

 its great recommendation to the buyer. But 

 to the farmer of the prairie there is another 

 point of no small value, and that is the long, 

 well-developed heads that our soil and cli- 

 mate give to this grass, making a large and 

 sure yield ; thus we never hear of the fail- 

 ure of a crop of grass seed. Of course the 

 yield varies, but is always a paying crop. 



BARNS NEEDEL. 



One reason why farmers do not more 

 generally enter into the culture of this 

 crop, is the want of barns. Thousands of 

 bushels are lost annually for the want of 

 barns in which to secure the seed. Almost 

 every farmer who owns a barn and a herds- 

 grass meadow, has grass seed for sale, in 

 fact, unless he is of the most shiftless order 

 of farmers, he must have it. We will sup- 

 pose that he takes no particular pains to 

 save it, yet the simplicity of the process is 

 such that he cannot well avoid it, and all it 

 really costs him is the cleaning it from the 

 chafi", by passing through the fanning mill, 

 which only needs an additional screen 

 called a grass seed screen, ^costing some 

 three or four dollars. In feeding out the 

 hay, it is first thrown down on the barn 

 floor, where nearly all the seed shatters out, 

 certainly the best developed and ripest, just 

 such seeds as will command the highest 

 price. No threshing in this case is required, 

 the half-grown and unripe seed is held in 

 the chaff of the heads, and go out to the 

 stock. In this way a bain filled with herds- 

 grass hay will generally turn out more value 

 in seed thus saved, than enough to pay the 

 interest on the building, an item that should 

 go far to encourage the building of more 

 farm barns. On the other hand, if a farmer 

 wishes to make a business of growing grass 

 seed, he can save more by having a good 

 barn floor to thresh it on than by the usual 

 out-door process. He can house the straw, 

 which is valuable as a winter feed when 

 kept dry. We have observed that the 

 quantity of seed sent to market is in pro- 

 portion to the number of barns, and as these 



