97 



The 



Immedia te a fter-Mana cement 



OF New Pastures. 



A SPEING sowing of grasses is made at a time when atmospheric 

 changes are sudden and severe, and grass seeds are not so well 

 constituted for resisting these violent changes as corn and 

 other heavy seeds. Besides, the spring is never so dry and 

 cold as to prevent the growth of weeds, nor is the May sun hot 

 enough to scorch them to death ; but after sowing, a long spell 

 of unfavourable weather will seriously retard the grasses. Mean- 

 while the ground may be covered with chickweed, groundsel,^ 

 and other weeds. As these extend, the chances of the grasses 

 diminish, until at length it is possible that only a few spots will 

 be found on which they show sufficiently to prove that there 

 would have been a crop had circumstances been favourable. 

 In a backward spring early sowing increases the danger of the 

 grasses being smothered by weeds. 



But if early sowing has its perils, late sowing is not free 

 from them. Erom the former arises the possibiUty that the 

 young grasses will be injured by weeds, and from the latter 

 that before the grasses are sufficiently estabhshed to endure great 

 heat, they may be scorched beyond recovery by fierce sunshine. 

 Or the soil may be so dry that the germination of the seed is 

 dependent on rain, and if only a brief shower falls, the seeds 



^ Q-roundsel will actually flower when the thermometer stands near the freezing 

 point. Humboldt observed the plant growing in the upper reaches of the Andes, just 

 below the region of eternal snow, where the sun had little power and where hurricanes 

 are incessant and not a tree is able to rear its head. 



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