Vol. LXII. No. 2798. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 8, 1903. 
SI PER YEAR. 
GRASS CULTURE. 
AHGUMKNT FOR PLOWING FROM KENTUCKY. 
Turning Soil Up vs. Turning It Over. 
Part II. 
Last week we promised to give the other side of 
the Clark arguments. The following note was sent 
us February 25. It must be remembered that the 
Winters are open in Kentucky and that grass has a 
longer growing season than with us: 
“A great deal has been said in The R. N.-Y. the 
past three years in regard to Clark’s grass and his 
methods, most of which I indorse, but his advice to 
use the Cutaway harrow in place of the plow I em¬ 
phatically oppose for all this section of country. Last 
season, begin¬ 
ning September 
15, I sowed 11b 
acres of Tim¬ 
othy alone at 
the rate of one 
bushel to two 
acres. Most of 
the Ian d was 
plowed up out of 
clover and plow¬ 
ed deep in Au¬ 
gust. I worked 
the ground thor- 
0 11 g h 1 y w i th 
spike harrows, 
drags and roll¬ 
ers, sowed with 
a wheelbar row 
seeder, covered 
seed with a 
weeder, then ran 
the roller over 
the ground with 
chains behind it 
so that the sur¬ 
face would not 
bake. This was 
done on all the 
land except 10 
acres in the cen¬ 
ter of a 70-acre 
field. I conclud¬ 
ed to try the 
cutting harrow. 
1 went over this 
piece 16 times, 
doing three 
times the work 
that would have 
been done had I 
plowed It. I 
worked it off 
and on for two 
weeks until it was dust about inches deep. All 
the field was sown together and alike. I don’t believe 
Mr. Clark or anyone else ever had 100 acres look bet¬ 
ter than this, 160 days from sowing. In most places 
the Timothy is four inches tall and the ground cannot 
be seen upon walking over it. In many places it will 
hide a rabbit. But not so with the unplowed portion, 
it has suffered from freezing, has not made one-fourth 
the growth the other has, and bids fair not to make 
one-half the hay the plowed ground will. No ferti¬ 
lizer was used, but I will put 16 acres of the plowed 
land against any Mr. Clark or anyone else has, sown 
at same time, for one cutting. All this land has been 
cultivated for at least 100 years. No manure or ferti¬ 
lizer has ever been used on it, and it is all high, roll¬ 
ing land. It has had clover sown on it about once in 
The Difference 
Pointed Out. 
A TRIO OF DEEP MILKING TEXAS JERSEYS. Fig. 210. See Page 574. 
five years, and sometimes it catches well, sometimes 
it does not.” J. m. garrett. 
Woodford Co., Ky. 
Heavy Grass on Plowed Land. 
We were interested in this field and asked Mr. Gar¬ 
rett for further particulars. Two months later, on 
April 24, he wrote again as follows: 
“On land plowed last Fall the grass now stands 
from seven to nine inches high; on the land prepared 
by Clark’s method from four to six inches. There is 
no accident about this. The 1-0 acres worked up with a 
cutting harrow are in the center of a 70-acre field and 
were sown in the same rounds with the same tools that 
were used on the remainder of the field. This sowing 
was done September 17. On another field sown six 
young plants. Later on in Winter and Spring the sod 
turned under rots and continues to feed the plant on 
to maturity. 
“Now about the cut land. Whatever growth the 
land has on it is cut up very fine and mixed thor¬ 
oughly with the soil root and top, all together, mak¬ 
ing the land very light, holding the particles of soil 
far apart, allowing air to enter and dry out the mois¬ 
ture from the earth particles and furnishing no plant 
food for a considerable time. Pick up a handful of 
this soil and it is one-third hay. In dry, warm Au¬ 
tumns it does not rot and simply allows the grass to 
exist, when it does rot entirely it is too late for that 
year’s crop; beside, you have washed out Timothy 
roots. It has the reputation of being a surface plant, 
but I find to-day roots running seven inches deep and 
a perfect mat of 
them six inches 
deep. The cut¬ 
ting harrows do 
not go deep 
enough in our 
soils. But you 
may ask, can we 
raise five tons 
of grass per 
acre? Y e s, 1 
think we often 
surpass this 
greatly when we 
weigh it from 
the field in mix¬ 
ed gras ses. I 
raise only pure 
Timothy and 
from two to 
three tons of 
this is a large 
crop when barn 
cured. It sells 
here from $11 to 
$16 per ton. 
About three 
good crops is all 
the land should 
have raised on 
it, then a crop of 
clover. Ordinary 
land here does 
not produce over 
IVz ton of pure 
Timothy.” 
days later on plowed ground the grass is from three 
to five inches higher than on unplowed. I am quite 
sure that land worked up with cutting harrow will not 
produce as good a crop in this section of country. 
Wheat growers have repeatedly tried this plan with 
the poorest sort of success. We need no fertilizer 
here except nitrogen, and it is more cheaply secured 
by raising a crop of clover and pasturing it down than 
by direct purchase. Now the question comes, why 
does the plowed land grow a better crop than deeply- 
cut land? This is my explanation: Plowed land is 
turned upside down and the leached nitrogen and that 
deposited in and about the grass and clover roots is 
turned to the surface, the use of a spike harrow and 
roller tends only to fine and compact this rich soil 
and put it in the best possible condition to feed the 
We are prom¬ 
ised a report of 
the final yield of 
this grass. From 
our own experience we predict that the “Clark” grass ^ 
yielded far more than Mr. Garrett expected. We will 
also predict that after five or eight years cutting the 
Clark grass would be far ahead. Let us make clear 
the difference between the two fields. Mr. Garrett’s 
soil has been in clean cultivation for 100 years and has 
been well treated all that time with frequent crops of 
clover. Mr. Clark’s soil was a rocky New England 
pasture abandoned years ago, full of stones and over¬ 
grown with weeds, brush and briers. One would nat¬ 
urally expect that with these differing pedigrees dif¬ 
ferent treatments would be necessary. For example, 
when Mr. Garrett plows his clover he probably does 
not turn under a mass of foul grass and weeds. On 
such soil as Mr. Clark has in mind the plow buries 
and saves just what ought to be destroyed. 
