Vol. LV. No. 2428. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 8, 1896. 
$1.00 PER YEAR. 
A GOOD CROP OF GRASS. 
ITS PEDIGREE, FROM SEED TO MOWER. 
A Revolution and a Revelation. 
Part II. 
Let us start with an old meadow or pasture, or any 
other field that we wish in grass. It is easy enough 
to say, “Plow and harrow thoroughly, sow Timothy 
and Red-top, and roll.” That is only the backbone of 
the answer—all the other bones and the flesh must be 
added. A view of a part of Mr. Clark’s field is shown 
at Fig. 165. This part of the field contains the acre 
from which 12,340 pounds of well-dried hay were cut 
this year. 
On July 15, 1895, the field was in sod, much like 
many other meadows, except that the stand of grass 
was better than the average. The sod was not plowed, 
but cut up with a Right-lap Cutaway harrow or plow. 
This tool has 
three disks at 
the right, shap¬ 
ed with teeth 
much like those 
on the ordinary 
Cutaway. On 
the other side 
of the pole, are 
three round, 
flat plates—not 
disk s—w i t b 
teeth so m e- 
what like those 
on a saw. As 
the machine 
works around 
the field to the 
left, the outer 
disks tear the 
sod apart and 
turn it over 
while the plates 
on the inside 
cut the tough 
sod into narrow 
slices. At the 
next round, the 
disks work on 
these slices 
while the plates 
are slicing an¬ 
other round. 
The effect of 
this slicing and 
turning is to 
tear the sod 
into shreds and 
leave most of 
the roots turn¬ 
ed up to the 
sun. I saw the machine working in a tough old 
pasture. It was loaded down with two men and a 
bag of fertilizer with three horses to haul it. The 
sod was torn and twisted and turned until it looked 
like a garden sod turned over by a spade. A plow 
would have left the sod in tough, hard chunks and 
strips, and even the best of spring-tooth and Acme 
working could hardly have gone deep enough to break 
them up thoroughly. The Right-lap, instead of 
leaving the sod in long strings and chunks, cut it into 
pieces varying in size from the fist to the head, and 
threw each piece over by itself. 
1 think that most farmers would have said that one 
such working, with one or two harrowings, would fit 
the ground for any crop. That is where the “new 
method” comes in. Before that field was seeded, 
every living thing was killed—by cultivation, air and 
sun. That sod was worked over, not once, but 25 
times, with that tool. Up and across, and then 
diagonally, as often as any green growth showed on 
the surface, the Right-lap went over the field. A 
good team will work over 10 acres per day after the 
first breaking. The object is to have the upper six 
inches of soil as fine and open as a heap of dry wood 
ashes. That is the only way you can cultivate the 
grass crop. Corn, potatoes, orchards and vineyards 
are cultivated as the crops advance, thus letting the 
air and sun into the soil, and forming a “dust 
blanket” to carry the crop through the drought. You 
can cultivate these rowed crops while they are grow¬ 
ing, but for a crop of grass that will stay in sod four 
or five years, the cultivation must all be done in ad¬ 
vance. You cannot hoe the weeds out of a meadow 
after the grass starts—they must all be killed before 
the seed is sown. If you cultivate a crop of corn five 
times each season, for five years, you can well afford 
to work your grass land 25 times if you are to cut it 
five years ! 
The hay crop is worth more than any other crop 
grown in this country ; yet it is the most neglected of 
all. For centuries, grass has been made a sort of 
hired man for grain crops. It has had the second 
place at the table, and has been expected to be tough 
enough to stand anything. One of the singular old 
traditions is that Timothy needs a nurse crop to carry 
it through the winter. Accordingly, the grass seed 
is sown with the grain, with the result that a year is 
lost in getting a crop of hay, while the yield is cut 
down, at least, one-half of what it might have been if 
the grass had been seeded alone. We saw, last week, 
how nearly 15,000,000 plants were growing on one 
acre of this hay field. With a fair seeding of grain, 
not half this number of plants could be grown. There 
would not be room for them, for the grain plants 
crowd them out, and not only that, but in a dry sea¬ 
son, the grain will kill more than they crowd out by 
absorbing the moisture needed by the tiny grass 
plants. When the grain is cut, you will find where 
every grain plant stood, a bare spot as large as your 
palm or larger. There ought to grow on that bare 
spot, at least 20 grass plants if you are to have the 
average found on Mr. Clark’s field. You cannot pos¬ 
sibly cut over 2% tons of hay to the acre if these 
little unproductive bare spots are to be found all over 
the field. 
In his 12 years of experimenting, Mr. Clark says 
that he has spent much time in trying to reseed these 
bare spots, but has never been able to do it. He has 
scratched them over and reseeded, and has even gone 
so far as to “ graft” them by cutting little pieces of 
good Timothy sod and setting them out carefully in 
the largest of the bare places ! He has never been 
able percepti¬ 
bly to increase 
the number of 
desirable grass 
plants on an 
acre after the 
sod is well es¬ 
tablished. His 
rule is, when¬ 
ever the hay 
yield falls be¬ 
low four tons 
per acre, to cut 
up the old sod 
and reseed. 
This experi¬ 
ence has con¬ 
vinced him that 
the only safe 
way to insure a 
large crop of 
hay, is to start 
with as many 
grass plants as 
can be made to 
grow. From 
this point of 
view, weeds 
and grain are 
only in the way 
The former are 
to be killed, 
root and branch 
by turning 
them up to the 
sun again and 
again in the 25 
times of thor¬ 
ough working 
before the seed 
is sown. As for 
the grain, keep it out of the grass. If need be, buy 
it of your neighbor who is willing to give away half 
his grass crop for the sake of growing the two to¬ 
gether. Some folks may think that it pays to keep a 
few big steers in the calf pen to eat out of the same 
racks and boxes that the calves are to patronize. It 
is all right for the steers, but woe be unto the calves. 
It won’t do to say that the steers are needed to keep 
the calves warm, for you should have made the pen 
comfortable beforehand. The steers are like the 
grain, and the calves are like the little grass plants. 
The grass needs the nurse crop only when you 
have failed to fit the ground so that the grass seeds 
will start properly. If you wish to raise grain, sow 
it by itself, and when it is harvested, prepare the 
stubble just as Mr. Clark does the old meadow, and 
sow it to grass. You will have more grain and more 
grass to pay for it. This may be a hard thing for 
