CLAY LAND FOR G^ASS. 
307 
CLAY LAND FOR GRASS. 
There is an unwarrantable prejudice existing 
among our farmers generally, against clay soils, 
although when well situated, and properly man¬ 
aged, they are universally acknowledged as the 
best for wheat, and for grass. I have had some 
experience in this matter, and as I speak, like 
Othello, “only of what I do know/ 5 I will state a 
few facts which have occurred under my own eye. 
You know that the beautiful position you lately 
occupied on the Niagara river, three miles below 
my own residence, is now owned by Dr. Lyman, 
who purchased it last year. This farm is a stiff, 
unyielding clay; its only objection to any one 
desiring a delightful country residence. When 
you came into its possession, it had been for years 
“deviled over 5 ’—(a very significant phrase)—and 
the fields yielded only a miserable bite of blue- 
grass (poa pratensis), moss, and fivefingers. These 
fields were plowed up at once by you, and put 
into a rotation of root and grain crops, and fed with 
a small quantity of manure from the stables and 
piggery, and as soon as leveled, and laid into suit¬ 
able lands, seeded down to grass—a mixture of 
clover and timothy. I was there the other day, 
and looked over the grounds. They have had no 
top-dressings, and but little manure, as I under¬ 
stand, from any quarter. But the grass crops are 
beautiful. The mowing land will cut from one 
and a half to two and a half tons to the acre, and 
of the finest quality; free from weeds and foul 
stuff of any kind. The soil is almost a dead level, 
and all that has been done was to throw the land 
into beds, or ridges, say fifteen to thirty feet wide, 
with the plough, and carry off the falling water 
into the natural ravines by the same process, (a) 
I know no good reason why this land will not, 
with either the after-math occasionally left for a 
winter covering, and top-dressing, or a slight coat 
of stable manure, say ten cords to the acre, once 
in four or five years, applied either in the early 
spring, or immediately after mowing in summer 
(I like the latter best, as the wheels are apt to cut 
the soil in the spring), last an interminable time 
in grass, and yield the finest crops. Many fields 
of like character in the neighborhood have pro¬ 
duced grass abundantly for years, without either 
top-dressing or manure of any kind, and under the 
worst possible management. An instance I give 
you:—the Morehead farm, just below your late 
residence, has long been neglected. It has been 
regularly mowed every summer (and yet at this 
time has a crop of one and a half tons to the acre 
standing upon it), and immediately afterward, 
cattle have been turned upon it, gnawing it down 
to the ground before winter. Still it yields well. 
The soil is a stiff clay. On this place, eight or ten 
years ago, was a brick-yard. After two or three 
years’ working, it was abandoned, by merely dis¬ 
continuance, the old clay-pits, the brick-bed for 
drying, &c., left, and not even the miserable spiked 
rollers with which the clay was mixed, were 
removed. The old drying-bed, in particular, stood 
conspicuous for several years, a dry, red, arid 
object, packed as hard as pounding, rolling, and a 
continuous tramping of years could make it, and 
the subsequent neglect of the “ skinning” tenants 
would permit. In three or four years, however, 
the timothy and clover began to show, coming 
from seed lodged by the wind, or by cattle lying 
upon it. The result is, this old brick-bed, lying 
high and dry (for it had to be made so to dry the 
brick), has been for several years past the most 
productive piece of grass ground within my know¬ 
ledge. Every year when we have a fair quantity 
of rain, it yields at the rate of two to three tons 
to the acre. The patch is, perhaps, a quarter of 
an acre in extent. I passed it yesterday, and. 
although not fit to cut for a fortnight to come, it is 
lodgingwith its overgrowth ; and the surrounding 
grounds have a crop of full one and a half tons to 
the acre, and not a spoonful of manure has been 
put upon any part of it, but what the cattle have 
dropped in feeding on it. So of all the lands in 
the vicinity—a stiff, day soil; and, shame to their 
owners! a single soul of whom does not reside 
there, leaving the farms to be skinned and “ dev¬ 
iled” over for the past twenty years. I really do 
not know of so good a speculation as these lands 
would be to enterprising farmers, who would come 
and purchase them at fifteen to twenty dollars the 
acre, as they may be had, and all too, within six 
to ten miles from the centre of the populous city 
of Buffalo, fronting on the Erie canal. But “ the 
west” is all the rage; and when the emigrant 
once starts “ from the east,” no temptation will 
stop him short of his cherished El Dorado in Wis¬ 
consin, or Iowa ; even Ohio, Michigan, or anything 
short of the extreme west, although millions of 
acres of their good land are yet unsettled, are also 
passed over, having become “ an obsolete idea.” 
But to the clay soils. I much doubt whether 
we have, in America, ascertained the true value 
of these lands. The farm I cultivate, although of 
considerable extent, has a diversity of soil, consist¬ 
ing of sandy and gravelly loams, clayey loam, and 
a red, stiff clay. I have ploughed and cultivated 
them all. The sandy and gravelly loams work 
the easiest and freest ; they are better for roots, 
that is, in the working. So are they the easiest 
plowed; but they require the most manure, and 
retain its virtues the shortest time. The clayey 
loams are decidedly the strongest, and without 
manure yield well for many years, both grain, 
grass and roots, and with a slight sprinkling of 
dung throw up a heavy crop, and retain its bene¬ 
fits for years; while the stronger and unyielding 
clays, in good seasons, when full plowed and 
properly treated, yield good crops of grains, but 
laid into grass, produce both pasturage and mow¬ 
ing unsurpassed in quality and luxuriance. Nothing 
but long and severe droughts affect them. They 
then crack, and the grass ceases to grow; but a 
slight rain reinvigorates them, and they produce 
more bountifully than any other lands within my 
knowledge. 
This, however, is a secondary and a limestone 
region. Our soils are mixed, more or less, with 
lime, rendering them strong and enduring; yet I 
have little doubt that the clay soils generally in 
the United States and the Canadas are both pro¬ 
ductive, and permanent grass lands; and with 
proper care and attention, and that of the cheapest 
kind, will yield more in proportion to their gen» 
