54 FARM GRASSES OP THE UNITED STATES 



manure on his meadows : ' ' The grass-seeds are sown 

 on well-prepared land in late summer. The land is 

 manured before it is plowed for the grass crop. No 

 top-dressing is used the first winter, as ' the young 

 grass will not stand it. ' The next winter the sod is 

 top-dressed, as it is again the next. It is then plowed 

 up for corn." Manure on this farm contains both the 

 liquid and the solid excrement from the stock. 



On farms where manure is not plentiful it is con- 

 sidered good pradlice to plow under a light dressing of 

 manure in preparing land for grass. As a rule, no 

 further dressing of manure is applied till the winter 

 after the second haying season, when the sod is ma- 

 nured before breaking it up for corn. Ten to twelve 

 tons of barn-yard manure per acre is generallj'- con- 

 sidered a good dressing; four to six tons a light one. 



Sir John I^awes, whose valuable investigations at 

 Rothamstead, England, extended over more than half 

 a century, in speaking of the application of fertilizers 

 to permanent grass-lands, sa}'S: " A dressing of dung 

 once in five years, with two hundredweight of nitrate 

 of soda each year for the other four years, ' ' was the 

 best pradtice. 



Freer, another English authority, makes the fol- 

 lowing recommendations regarding the season of the 

 year in which to applj"^ manure and fertilizers to grass- 

 lands : Barn-yard manure should be applied during 

 winter, and not later than the last of February; phos- 

 phates and potash, by the first of March; ammonium 

 sulphate, by the first of March; nitrate of soda, by 

 April 15. 



Professor Soule, of the Tennessee station, reconi- 



