(18) 



timothy meadows lasted almost without limit, and produced 

 year after year for twenty or thirty years. But since we 

 have been growing blue-grass more extensively, it gets into 

 our timothy meadows and in a few years and will root it out; 

 so now, in buying my timothy seed, I look more carefully 

 for blue-grass seed than for the seed of any noxious weeds. 

 I would rather sow dock — I would rather sow anything in 

 my timothy than blue-grass. Still I value blue- grass in its 

 place as the first of grasses, yet it causes more trouble in our 

 meadows than anything else. Again, our seasons have be- 

 come dryer, and there is much greater difficulty in getting 

 a stand of timothy than formerly. When I commenced 

 sowing meadows, I had no trouble in getting a stand of 

 timothy, whether I sowed the seed in the fall or in the 

 spring, whether I sowed in the fall with wheat or barley, or 

 in the spring with my oats. For many years I never failed. 

 Now I sow in the the fall, and the timothy is frequently 

 winter-killed ; I sow in the spring, and it is killed by the 

 long droughts of summer. But these difficulties should not 

 deter us; we should continue to sow, and persevere until we 

 get a stand. Hence if I sow in the fall and my timothy is 

 killed, I sow in the spring ; if it is then killed, I sow again 

 and again until I succeed. I have never given up, and 

 have never entirely failed after repeated efforts. I got a 

 good stand of timothy many years ago with a gallon of seed 

 to the acre, now I would recommend not less than one and 

 a half gallons, or even a peck of seed to the acre. Again, 

 the better the stand you get, and the thicker your grass 

 comes up, the more will it keep out the weeds. The white 

 blossom, like the blue grass, has also increased largely, and 

 •seems to be yet increasing. That is a troublesome weed for 

 our meadows, still it is not as pernicious as it seems to the 

 inexperienced. True, you cannot sell white blossom in the 

 market, but if you expect to consume the hay at home and 

 make your timothy with a large amount of white blossom 

 in it, you will find you will have good hay. Slock will eat 



