358 PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE. 



It should never have been cleared for pasturing, but 

 should have been left to run to wood. Such rough 

 lands are often much improved by sowing plaster at the 

 rate of two hundred pounds per acre. Plaster gene- 

 rally works well on clays and clayey loams, which are 

 not wet." And another: " Where I have ploughed and 

 planted old pastures, and then seeded anew, the cattle 

 get a much better living." One of the best farmers of 

 my acquaintance, in reply to the same question, says : 

 " Either by ploughing, rolling, and sowing down grass- 

 seed and grain in September or April, or ploughing in 

 manure, after removing the crop on old ground, and 

 cross plough in the spring, then spread and harrow in 

 guano, at the rate of three hundred pounds per acre, or 

 a good dressing of compost, and sow Rhode Island bent, 

 or redtop, and white and red clover, with some variety 

 of grain ; or by scarifying mossy ground, and sowing in 

 grass-seed and harrowing it, then applying three hun- 

 dred pounds of guano, or one bushel and one peck of 

 salt, or ashes from ten to twenty bushels per acre, 

 harrow and bush the ground. Sow early in fall or 

 spring." 



A farmer, who has lived and had a large observation 

 in England, says : " Some farmers say the plough. But 

 in England, where old pastures are seldom broken up, I 

 have known extraordinary results from top-dressing 

 with crushed bones, more particularly on the large 

 dairy farms in Cheshire. I am sorry I cannot give you 

 the quantities. A neighbor of mine has harrowed an 

 old, worn-out pasture, dressed with a liberal coating of 

 Barilla ashes, from six to seven cords per acre, and 

 sowed white clover, and rolled it. It came out a beau- 

 tiful pasture. The brush harrow and roller, applied to 

 all grass land in the spring, will amply repay for the 

 labor. Breaking and spreading the cattle droppings on 



