.flgrimlture is the ra@$t healthful , the most useful , and the most noble employment of man . —Washington. 
VOL. V. MEW YORK, APRIL, 1846. NO. IV e 
A. B. Allen, Editor. Saxton & Miles, Publishers, 205 Broadway. 
YALUE OF THE GRASSES. 
The product of our grass land is not only far 
beyond that of any other crop in the United States, 
but is probably greater than all other crops com¬ 
bined, as they are taken from the field. This is 
not true with certain parts of the Union, as in por¬ 
tions of the South, where cotton, rice, sugar, or 
other leading articles are cultivated; nor with such 
as are in the neighborhood of large markets, where 
fruits and vegetables are in steady demand at high 
prices. But throughout the States generally, we do 
not doubt that the aggregate of the production of 
grass is far beyond that of all other raw products 
combined: for it must be remembered that grain 
and rice, after harvesting, must be threshed and 
cleaned at an expense of several cents per bushel; 
cotton must be carefully picked and cleaned, and 
then baled; sugar and tobacco must be manufac¬ 
tured before they are ready for market; all of 
which expenses should first be deducted before 
placing them on a par with grass, which is always 
marketable in the field, either by the animals which 
consume it, or as hay. If we consider farther, that 
nearly every one of the other products *s raised by 
long-continued, expensive, laborious efibrts, both of 
man and beast, we largely enhance the comparative 
value of the grasses, as they are thus secured in all 
their value and importance at a much cheaper rate 
than other productions. Another and highly im¬ 
portant advantage they possess over other crops is, 
they but slightly impoverish the soil in any in¬ 
stance, while, in many, they tend to its fertilisation; 
but all other crops exhaust it to a greater or less 
degree. If these propositions be true, it behooves 
the farmer to look well after his grass lands. If 
properly prepared and managed, they are a mine of 
wealth to him ; while, with the generality of 
farmers, if they be neglected, wo betide his re¬ 
sults, for he will secure nothing for his purse, if he 
even succeeds in providing himself and family with 
the necessaries of life. 
With too many of the farmers, grass lands are 
either totally neglected, or they receive just enough 
of attention to rescue them from absolute abandon¬ 
ment. Some farmers never sow an ounce of grass 
seed on their land ; but after first clearing off 
the original growth of wood, or taking off a crop of 
grain, they heedlessly abandon it to the growth of 
such herbage as may spring up from the chance 
seed of former years’ accumulation in the soil; and. 
as this is pretty equally made up of the seeds of 
grass and weeds, the latter usually usurp their full 
share of the soil, till such time as the former has the 
power of assuming that predominance which a kind 
Providence has given to the useful over the useless 
or prejudicial products of nature. 
Grass-lands, whether intended for meadow or 
pasture, ought to be prepared with the same cau¬ 
tion as fields of grain or vegetables. They should 
be finely, evenly, and smoothly plowed and har¬ 
rowed : they should be in high condition as to fer¬ 
tility; all the furrows should be carefully smoothed 
down and levelled if leechy land, or as carefully 
cleaned out and kept open for thorough surface 
draining, if they consist of stiff clay. The seed 
should be well chosen for plumpness and weight, 
and entire freedom from any improper mixture ; 
and, lastly, it should be evenly and most liberally 
sown with one, or as many varieties of grass or 
clover, as is best suited to the soil, or the object 
proposed. If, from unforeseen causes, as drought 
or winter killing, or imperfection of seed, any spots 
should prove bare or imperfectly seeded, the first 
proper time should be taken for re-seeding it. 
Cattle should be carefully excluded till the grass 
has acquired a fine sod, and, in the spring, and suf» 
