HOW TO BENOVATE PASTURES. 357 



and put on fifteen loads of compost manure, and planted 

 it with corn. I sowed it down in the fall with rye, 

 Timothy, and redtop, and sowed clover in the spring, 

 and about a bushel and a half of plaster of Paris per 

 acre. The next year I ploughed another part, and 

 manured it the same, except that I planted this with 

 melons, dunged in the hill, seven feet apart, and then 

 sowed it down in the fall the same as the other piece. 

 The next year I took up the remainder, and all the 

 manure I put on the piece, except in the hill, was the 

 water carted on it from a hole in my barn-yard. It was 

 immediately ploughed under, then holed and dunged in 

 the hill seven feet apart, planted with melons, and in 

 the fall sowed as the other parts. Since that it has con- 

 tinued to bear very large grass. When I have turned 

 my cattle into it, the first of June, I have judged, and 

 others who have seen it, that, had I not pastured it, I 

 might have cut a ton to the acre. The soil of this piece 

 consists mostly of sand, resting upon a subsoil of gravel. 

 Most of our pastures are spoiled by feeding off too 

 early in the spring, and over-stocking. Cattle should 

 not be turned in till the first of June, and then not 

 over-stocked ; so that there will always be spots of 

 grass to go to seed, which will keep the pasture well 

 stocked with grass. Always keep your pasture stocked 

 with grass. If you cannot keep it on any other way, 

 sow on Timothy and redtop, and harrow it in, once a 

 year. I prefer to do it in August ; but any other month 

 in which you are most at leisure will do." 



Another experienced farmer says : " Old pastures 

 should be ploughed and planted when they are not too 

 rough for those operations. They may then be seeded 

 down in July among corn or beans, or grain may be 

 sown with the grass-seed in the following spring. But 

 we have too much rough pasture unfit for the plough. 



