TREATMENT OF MOWING LANDS. 
85 
TREATMENT OF MOWING LANDS. 
It is a common practice with many far- 
mers whose mowing grounds get " run out," or 
"hide bound," although still requiring them for 
purposes of hay, to plow and crop them for a 
year or two, and then re-seed them in grass, for 
the purpose of getting a full crop of hay — and 
this, too, on soils perfectly natural to hay grasses. 
Such treatment, I consider altogether unneces- 
sary, and attended with the following bad 
results : — 
1st. When a meadow is well and smoothly 
laid down in good condition of soil, with Timothy, 
clover, and other grasses, it does not arrive at 
full bearing maturity until the third or fourth 
year of their growth ; the grasses requiring that 
time to obtain sufficient root to give the turf a 
compact and close bottom, and yield the sweetest 
and most nutritious hay. About this time, (the 
third or fourth crop,) if not overflowed bottom 
lands, or not top-dressed, the " run out," or 
"hide bound" process usually begins. The 
plowing and cropping, (without manure,) pro- 
cess, is more exhausting to the soil than thrice 
the number of grass crops, and when again laid 
down, is less fitted for hay bearing than before ; 
and by this process, a constant deterioration is 
going on in the soil. Even if a dressing of 20 
loads of barnyard manure to the acre be applied 
to the plowed crop, two of them will generally 
exhaust it, and leave the land heavy and inac- 
tive for the grass seed, when received,. 
2d. The irregularity to which the grass, or 
stock farmer is subjected in the frequent failure 
of his grass seed to " take," causing him, in most 
cases, to plow a year or two longer than he 
otherwise would have done, and consequently 
subjecting his land to the exhausting draft of 
the tillage crops. Now, the remedy for these 
difficulties, I have found exceedingly simple and 
effective ; and which is, top-dressing and har- 
rowing, either immediately after the land is 
mowed in summer, or at any time between that 
and the starting of the grass in the spring — and 
in illustration I will give a little of my expe- 
rience. 
My land is mostly in grass ; the soil a friable, 
clayey loam, resting, at 6 to 18 inches below the 
surface, upon a stiff, clayey subsoil. On com- 
ing into possession of it, eight years ago, I found 
much of it had been several years under the 
plow, in an exhausting succession of crops, and 
thrown into narrow, uneven " lands," requiring 
thorough plowing again, to lay them into proper 
surface for grass. This I did, and as soon as 
prepared, seeded them down with barley, oats, 
and wheat ; and in only one instance have I 
found it necessary to break up any field so 
seeded ; and that because it was not sufficiently 
level to mow smoothly. 
The lands so seeded have done unusually well, 
and yielded good crops ; not, however, getting a 
good, close turf, until the third or fourth year. 
I have uniformly fed them close in the fall, after 
mowing, and find it no detriment to the succeed- 
ing hay crop, if not poached by the cattle in the 
late wet weather of autumn, which last is always 
to be avoided, as it invariably spoils the meadow 
by treading out the grass, and making the sur- 
face uneven. When the grass shows symptoms 
of decline, or the surface gets mossy, as it some- 
times will in the best of grounds, I have given 
it a moderate top-dressing, say 5 to 10 cords an 
acre, evenly spread with 4 to 6 quarts of new 
seed, and thoroughly harrowed. The result has 
always been a double or triple crop of hay the 
next season ; and when the land has not been 
"hard run," a thorough harrowing, with new 
seed, without manure, has answered the pur- 
pose. Don't be afraid of the harrow. Your 
meadow may look as if it was all dragged to 
pieces, and bleak enough to bear a crop of 
grain. No matter. The new seed will take all 
the better, and the old roots strike anew with 
increased vigor. I have one piece in my eye of 
about three acres of stiff clay knoll, a corner 
of a large meadow of 60 acres, which, in 1848, 
did not yield a ton of hay to the acre. I last 
year fenced it off, and yarded my cows there 
over night, for a few weeks, intending to plow 
it up the next spring, for a tilled crop. The 
cattle had trodden it all up, so that hardly a 
green blade of grass was to be seen when win- 
ter set in. But, being hurried with my spring 
work, and seeing the grass spring up very green 
last April, I removed the temporary fence from 
around it, sowed four quarts of new seed to the 
acre, and harrowed it thoroughly each way, 
with a heavy drag, until hardly a green thing 
was to be seen upon it ; and yet, when mowing 
time arrived, I had the solid satisfaction of cut- 
ting within a fraction of three tons of the best 
Timothy and clover to the acre — in the whole, 
upwards of eight tons : and a first-rate bottom 
on it for another year. This piece was, how- 
ever, well manured. In my opinion, the stale 
of the cattle was more valuable than the dung. 
Two years before, I had a piece of about 
equal size treated in the same manner, which 
gave me upwards of two tons to the acre, when, 
the year previous, it j r ielded not even three 
fourths of a ton to the acre. Another field of 
16 acres, a part of which was top-dressed with 
about five cords of barnyard dung per acre, the 
remainder not dressed at all, and all harrowed, 
gave me an average of two tons an acre, against 
a crop the previous year of less than a ton ; 
although that previous crop was much dimin- 
ished by the drought. 
If the ground be quite dry when harrowed, 
the roller should follow — and the roller is bene- 
ficial always, when not too wet. The harrow 
should be light or heavy, according to the con- 
dition of the soil or sod ; a loose soil will better 
bear a light harrow; a compact soil a heavy 
one ; but the teeth always should be sharp, and 
no matter how lively or often they play over 
the ground. Let the land be thoroughly scratched. 
Such treatment I consider better than plowing, 
even when the land is immediately seeded again 
to grass ; as it gives a quick return, and a thick 
bottom at once. 
As to manures for top-dressing, scarce any- 
thing soluble comes amiss. Old ashes, plaster, 
lime, hair, rags, dung of all kinds, urine, wash 
