16 GRASSES AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



as by using on them the harrow and the roller. The 

 roller will be found specially helpful when laying down 

 soils to grass. Before they are sown, it very greatly 

 aids in securing a fine pulverization. After they are 

 sown it firms the surface soil, pressing it around the 

 seeds and thereby hastening germination. But when 

 grass seeds are sown in the autumn on heavy soils and 

 in rainy climates, it would be easily possible to have the 

 fjulverization so fine, that impaction of the soil to an 

 injurious extent would follow. Grasses like other plants 

 grow luxuriantly in proportion as the elements of plant 

 food are readily available and abundant in the soil, 

 hence, it is qu:ite possible to so reduce the available fer- 

 tility in a soil through excessive cropping, that on these 

 a stand of grass cannot be secured unless they are first 

 enriched. ^STo fertilizer that can be applied under these 

 conditions will equal farmyard manure, since it yields 

 up the elements of plant food in it but gradually, hence, 

 the nitrogen in the same is not leeched out of the soil 

 so readily as when applied in the form of commercial 

 fertilizers. It also improves the mechanical condition 

 of the land. In dry climates, when buried in the soil, 

 it should, when fresh, be applied to the crop preceding 

 grass, but its presence in the soil in a form so bulky 

 should liberate moisture unduly, through the resistance 

 which it offers to the influences that promote impaction, 

 but, when reduced, it may be applied though in but mod- 

 erate quantities, just before the preparation of the land 

 for the crop, or while it is being so prepared. Farm- 

 yard manure has in it of course all the essential elements 

 required to promote growth in grasses. 



