172 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEJl. 



June 



[From the Country Oentleman and Onltivator.] 



Top-Dressing Grass Ijands. 



r Within a few years past the subject of top- 

 dressing grass lands has been much discussed, 

 and carefully conducted experiirents have -been 

 instituted and carried through, both in England 

 and in this country, for the purpose of testing 

 the economy of this method of applying manure. 

 DifiFerent fertilizers, organic and inorganic, have 

 been carefully noted, and many of them have 

 been made public through the columns of the ag- 

 ricultural journal?. 



Recently v^e have been looking over a portion 

 of these reports,^and in this article propose to 

 notice some of the experiments for the benefit of 

 such of our readers as hare not had access to 

 the several journals from which we quote. 



Of the importance of the hay crop to the farming 

 interests of the northern portion of our country 

 we scarcely need allude. Where bo much of the 

 thrift and welfare of our farmers is dependant 

 npon their henis and flocks, and the manure de- 

 rived from them, we think it is not overstating, 

 when we say the hay crop is the foundation of 

 successful farming in those eections of the coun- 

 try above named. 



Among the most important experiments in 

 top-dressing grass lands with different fertilizers 

 those of Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert of Rotham- 

 stead, England, take precedence. "The land 

 selected for the experiments comprised about six 

 acres of the Park of Rothamstead, and it had 

 been under permanent grass for certainly more 

 than a century. Early in 1856, nine plots of 

 half an acre each were measured off, for as many 

 different combinations of so called artificial ma- 

 nuring substances ; two of an acre each to be 

 continually unmanured, and two, ilso of a quar- 

 ter of an acre each, to be manured annually with 

 farm dung." 



We cannot here go into the particulars of the 

 whole series of the different plots and fertilizers 

 but must content ourselves with some of the gen- 

 eral results arrived at by Messrs. L. & Q., viz: 

 Where purely mineral manures were used, they 

 greatly increased the growth of leguminous 

 plants (clovers), with very little increase of the 

 true or long leaved grasses. Where the purely 

 ammoniacal salts were applied, the effect was 

 to much increase the grimaceous or long leaved 

 grasses, without at all increasing the growth of 

 clover. Where a mixture of both mineral and 

 ammoniacal manures were applied, the increase 

 of hay was very striking, over that of the plots 

 receiving the two kinds separately. 



It was found that although the ammoniacal 

 salts when used alone, gave an annual increase 

 of only eleven cwt. of hay, the same amount of 

 ammoniacal salts, when in conjunction with the 

 "mixed mineral manure" (plot ten), gave an an- 

 nual increase of one ton, fifteen and three- 

 eighths cwt. of hay. That the combination of 

 ammoniacal salts and the mixed mineral manure 

 gave more than three times as much increase as 

 the ammoniacal salts alone, and four times as 

 much as the mineral manure alone. The aver- 

 age annual produce by the mixture of the am- 

 moniacal salts and mineral manure, amounted in 



fact to within less than a hundred weight of 

 three tons of hay per acre, by the side of ohq 

 ton four cwt. per acre on the continuously ua. 

 manured land." 



The above statements seem to point out pretty 

 conclusively,that for the greatest increase of our 

 farm crops, the manure applied should contain 

 all the necessary ingredients of the crops, both 

 organic and inorganic, of which good farm yard 

 manure is the "type." The above may be laid 

 down as a general rule, to which there w&j pos<. 

 sibly be seme exceptions — as in the cases of su^ 

 perphosphate of lime for the turnip plant, and 

 ammonia for the wheat plant. Bat the farmer 

 who depends npon raising mazimnm crops, and 

 keeping up the fertility of bis soil for any 

 great length of time, by the continued use of 

 either class of manures alone, will ultimately 

 find his system of manuring has been a bad one. 



"Among the most interesting of the points in- 

 cidentally brought out by the experiments, is the 

 striking confirmation which the results nfford of 

 the (so to speak) special adaptation, in a course 

 of practical agriculture, of certain of the crops 

 of our rotations, accordingly as they belong to 

 one or the other of the two great families of 

 plants," the leguminious — clover, lucerne, peas 

 and beans ; and the graminaceous — wheat, bar- 

 ley, rye, timothy, and other long leaved or na- 

 tural grasses. The "interesting points" brought 

 out were, that the application of the mineral 

 manures alone greatly increased the clovers, 

 without anything like a corresponding increase 

 of the natural grasses ; while the effect of the 

 ammoniacal manures was precisely the reverse. 

 And, wiicre the two kinds of manures were used 

 conjointly, "the produce consisted almost exclu- 

 sively of griminaceoua plants. There was 

 scarcely a clover or any other leguminous plant 

 to be found on the plot." 



The past season, Mr. Harris, of the Genesee 

 Farmer, experimented on grass land with several 

 kinds of fertilizers, both organic and inorganic, 

 alone and mixed. The application of tie several 

 kinds of manure exhibiting similar to those ob- 

 tained by Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, viz., "the 

 plots that were dressed with ammonia, super- 

 phosphate of lime, and ucleached ashes, gave a 

 very much greater quantity ef produce than any 

 others." "There is one fact that we must not 

 forget to mention. The superphosphate and 

 ashes on plot No. 6, brought in a large quantity 

 of red clover. The effect in this particular was 

 very marked. On plot No. 7, with ashes and 

 plaster, there was also a little clover, but not 

 one-tenth as much as from the superphosphate 

 and ashes." The field experimented upon was a 

 timothy meadow, six years from seeding. Mr. 

 H. does not attempt to draw any conclusions from 

 the results, intending to repeat the experiments 

 next season. 



The "Transactions of the Essex Agricultural 

 Society, 1861," contains an interesting statement 

 on top-dressing grass lands, by Richard S. Rog- 

 ers, Esq., of South Danvers. He says, "There 

 is no subject in agriculture deserving more in- 

 quiry, and of greater importance to the farm- 

 ing interests, than the knowledge of the best kind 

 of fertilizer! to be used for top-dressing grass 



