APPENDIX. 487 



pasture, and will yield a satisfactory crop of hay. It grows well on all 

 the varieties of land and soil, and where the soil is thin and mixed with 

 that whitish clay found in the poorer parts of the county, I think it is the 

 only grass which will give a paying crop of .hay. I have no hesitancy in 

 pronouncing it pre-eminently the grass for thin, wet or clayey lands. 



Timothy, with many of our farmers, is the crop most relied upon for 

 hay, and on good land it is a highly remunerative crop. As but little hay 

 is sold, and that never weighed, I cannot estimate the yield of this grass 

 per acre. A meadow under ordinary circumstances will not last longer 

 than four years, by that time it is generally ruined by broom sedge. Our 

 timothy meadows make good sheep pastures from November till April 

 without sustaining any estimable damage. A smooth soil, loam and clay, 

 and high lands are better suited for timothy than the siliceous and gravel- 

 ly soils, and the stronger the land the better the meadow will be. Timothy 

 should be sown here, unless the fall is very dry, in September, so as to al- 

 low it to become well rooted before the freezes come, and it should be cov- 

 ered with a roller. It is best to- sow it by itself, in which case it will yield 

 a fair crop of hay the next summer. It is more frequently, however, 

 sown with wheat. This practice is unwise as only a small crop of wheat 

 can be made, and that at the expense and injury of the meadow, which is 

 expected to last several years. Timothy sown in the spring does not do 

 well, as it cannot get sufficient root to stand the heat of summer. 



Clover is more generally used for pasture than any other grass. Its 

 popularity is due to the fact that it can be seeded at a small cost per acre, 

 and that it affords good summer grazing, and if not used in this way, is a 

 most valuable crop to turn under. Though, like blue grass, it does not 

 flourish here as in the Limestone Basin, still clover grows luxuriantly in 

 Eobertson county. On fresh land which has been cultivated for a few 

 years in tobacco and then sown in wheat and clover, I have seen clover 

 that could not be surpassed any where. It is frequently cut for hay, and 

 for hogs is the best pasture we can have, putting them in fine condition to 

 fatten. It grows on all of our lands ; is fine to renovate tired and worn 

 soil. But for hay should be sown on rich land whether hill or bottom. 

 It is sown in the spring on the small grains, but it is best to sow it with 

 oats, for thereby it gets the advantage of a good, loose seed bed, thoroughly 

 prepared at the time of sowing. When a good stand of clover is once ob- 

 tained, and the seeds have been allowed to ripen and to fall on the ground, 

 it rarely becomes necessary to sow again. I know personally of hundreds 

 of acres on which there is a splendid stand of clover, where there has not 

 been a seed sown for over twenty years. During this time the fields allud- 

 ed to have been cultivated every second or third year in corn or tobacco 

 followed by the cereals, and as regularly as these crops have been taken 

 off so they have been followed by a fine growth [of clover. The theory 

 prevails here that by cultivation the root of the clover is killed, hut that 

 quantities of seed which lie deep in the ground for years without sprout- 



