Vol. LVI. No. 2474. 
NEW YORK, JUNE 26, 1897. 
$1.00, PER YEAR 
A BIG CROP OF GRASS. 
WHOLE STORY FROM SEED TO BARN. 
Geo. M. Clark’s Thirteen Years’ Experience. 
This is my thirteenth year in the experimental work 
on grass, and I am still at it and more fully confirmed 
in conclusions heretofore formed. E : ght things are 
necessary to secure the best results : First, moist 
land; second, thorough cultivation ; third, perfect 
grade ; fourth, suitable fertilizers ; fifth, plenty of 
grass seed ; sixth, well worked in ; seventh, sown at 
proper time ; eighth, secured in season. These eight 
conditions are necessary to best results. The ques¬ 
tion of moist land is quite important. One-third more 
grass can be grown on moist land than on medium 
dry ; better results can be obtained on dry by forcing 
the crop with the fall and early spring rains. Send 
the grass plants on such land into winter full of life, 
and push them with the earliest warmth of spring. 
By the use of bone, potash and nitrate of soda in the 
fall, and nitrate of soda in the spring, over four tons 
of excellent hay were secured to the acre in one crop. 
Such land should 
then rest until fall 
when it can be 
again pushed. 
My field is com¬ 
posed of part dry 
and part moist 
land ; in fact, all 
kinds of land 
moist to very dry 
can be found in 
the 10-acre field. 
Hillside swamps 
make good grass 
land. This class 
of land usually has 
a water-tight bot- 
toqi near the sur¬ 
face. Some of my 
field is such, and 
in grading, no at¬ 
tention was paid 
to the distribution 
of muck. When 
the grading was 
finished, much of 
the surface con¬ 
tained nothing but 
clay hardpan and 
gravel, the muck 
being swept away 
into the holes, yet 
no difference has 
ever been visible in the crops grown on this field. 
Thorough Cultivation Is Very Important. —In 
all these years, I have given this branch of the work 
special attention. Some of my first experimental 
work was upon a field previously down to grass. In 
April, the sod was nicely turned about seven inches 
deep, and rolled, then harrowed with the best tool 
then known to the art, a solid disk harrow, several 
times each month until September, at which time the 
surface was in fine condition. Then it was sown to 
Timothy. The grass came up well, in fact the out¬ 
look was good. One thing I had noticed during the 
summer, that when the harrow had been idle a few 
days, some grass would appear. When new grass 
came so perfectly, my conclusions were that the old 
grass, if any remained, must go. A little later, there 
appeared more of the old grass. It increased in vol¬ 
ume ; as that multiplied, the new grass vanished. 
Soon, half the grass in the field was of this old natural 
grass. It flourished well with the better cultivation 
and fertilizers. With the opening spring, the Timothy 
was nearly gone and the natural grass had substan¬ 
tially captured the field. My farmer neighbors 
around said, “I told you so ; some cereal crop must 
be sown with it to protect the young grass in winter.” 
I had sown grass many times in spring with grain, 
nearly always making a failure ; also had sown many 
times in fall with grain. The grass thus sown grew 
coarse and woody. The real thing was to know why 
that fine stand of Timothy had gone. None of us 
quite solved the problem. The real facts were that 
the old sod had been inverted, not destroyed ; in fact, 
transplanted. The solid disk harrow had been cul¬ 
tivating the old grass ; it had stirred and loosened 
the soil, thereby improving its condition. The young 
grass had fine earth to start in, but the native grass 
had the under-hold and took possession of the water 
and fertilizers. This was the origin of the Cutaway 
harrow. Something must be done with the inverted 
sod ; it must be reached and destroyed. It often re¬ 
quires years of time and labor to subdue the sod; 
with the old machines some remedy was needed. 
The remedy was found in the bladed disk that 
would penetrate the inverted sod and by thorough 
use exterminate all vegetation. The Cutaway har¬ 
row and plow enable the farmer to cultivate the soil 
thoroughly and, with the new machines, in less time 
than with the old machines in the old way. Perhaps 
my first light of thorough cultivation came from a 
part of my field which was covered with wild brush, 
briers and worthless vegetation, which was hard to 
subdue. This worthless trash must go and, in the 
meantime, I wanted to try the effect of sunlight and 
air so that, in April, the Cutaway harrow was started, 
and except on Sundays, the section of the field was 
cut in half lap or double-harrowed with the Cutaway 
until September 1, when it was sown to grass, giving 
wonderful results. At least seven inches of the sur¬ 
face of this land was lifted and given a new position 
in the sunshine and shadow twice each day. It was 
made into and kept a perfect ash bed ; it was lifted 
and turned at least 230 different times. All sourness 
was removed, all vegetation killed, new life was 
given the soil ; the result was magical. 
I was not the first to find constant cultivation of 
great benefit—perhaps the first in the grass field. 
J. H. Hale had previously found Witch grass, which 
he wished to kill, in a corn field It was an extreme 
drought, so that the corn, under the old theory, must 
be a failure. He cultivated daily for weeks until the 
corn was ripe, and found that he had not only killed 
the Witch grass, but had formed a dust bed and held 
the subsoil water back among the corn roots ; while 
his neighbors who worked their corn in the usual 
way had no corn, he had 100 bushels per acre. My 
theory was, if good for corn, why not for grass? A 
Mr. Butler, of Fresno, and Upper Sacramento, Cal., 
had found that five cultivations would kill out weeds 
and foul trash among his vineyards and orchards. 
He also found that 24 thorough cultivations would 
increase the crop yield five-fold. The company with 
which I am connected have thousands of letters on 
file giving evidence of 25 to 50 per cent more crop 
with the greater cultivation. Since my first exces¬ 
sive cultivation, I have treated all the fields in a sim¬ 
ilar manner, never reseeding a field without giving 
it at least 25 to 50 most thorough cultivations and, 
I am sure, it has always paid me well to do so. 
Perfect Grad¬ 
ing is important, 
for whether o n 
hillside or plain, 
depressions may 
occur that will 
hold water, or 
make it move 
slowly and, there¬ 
by, kill out the 
grass in winter. A 
good grade is also 
very important in 
handling the crop 
with the mowers, 
tedders and horse 
rake, much money 
and time are saved 
in repairs, and a 
much larger crop 
obtained by a 
good grade. 
Suitable Fer¬ 
tilizers — That 
was an important 
question. I had 
previously tried 
Peruvian and fish 
guanos, and phos¬ 
phates of different 
kinds, nearly all 
of which soon 
failed. Yard ma¬ 
nures are all right to work into the soil before seed¬ 
ing, but cannot be used after seeding and secure the 
best results, for the reason that much of the stand 
will be killed out. Bone, muriate of potash and 
nitrate of soda have, thus far, been found to give 
best results, the bone and potash being used for the 
body, and the nitrate of soda for the driver. On very 
dry land, I use some nitrate of soda in fall and more 
in early spring. 
Amount of Grass Seed —That is a question of im¬ 
portance, one that has had much attention. The 
average farmer sows four to eight quarts of Timothy, 
rarely more, to the acre. Some add a little clover. 
Many farmers have explained to me why they use so 
small an amount of seed. They say that, in sowing 
their Timothy in fall with grain, four quarts are 
ample, for the reason that the grain is cut the next 
season before the grass matures, and that soon the 
Timothy matures and, not being gathered, soon falls 
and fully completes the seeding, so that the secoad 
year after seeding, they get a fine stand of grass. 
That is the talk. They are often surprised at the re- 
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HOGS EATING RAPE. HALF AN ACRE SAVES OVER 1,000 POUNDS OF GRAIN. Fig. 177. See Page 418. 
