1858 . 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
289 
single instance. The experience of many years has 
shown me that these open boxes placed around cucum¬ 
bers, melons, squashes, and all kindred plants, are an 
effectual protection against the cut-worm, the striped 
beetle, the large, stinking squash bug, and all other 
insect depredators. 
I hope ere long to be sufficiently at leisure to resume 
the series of Entomological contributions to the Coun¬ 
try Gentleman, which other engagements have com¬ 
pelled me to intermit for some time past. Asa Fitch. 
Jane 28, 1858. 
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Improvement of Pastures. 
As the subject of the grasses and its importance has 
been frequently treated of in many of the agricultu¬ 
ral journals, a recurrence to it at any time it is hoped . 
will lead the agriculturist to study his best interest. 
Our pasture grounds need greater attention than is ge¬ 
nerally paid them, to make them productive in quanti¬ 
ty and quality, of the grasses for the grazing herd. 
Next to the having good stock, is that of providing 
good pasturing. All lands are not adapted to this pur¬ 
pose. There is a vast difference in the quality of the 
grasses, and we consequently find that some pastures 
in which there is a luxuriant ?nd well sustained crop 
of herbage the season through, the animals are fam¬ 
ished and lean that are fed upon them. Other lands 
devoted to their use, while they appear short and dry, 
turn out their tenants in the fall in a condition obvi¬ 
ously improved—they are fat, sleek, and show no signs 
of a lack of food, but the reverse. Low lands, which 
are generally saturated with water which becomes 
stagnant, seldom produce any but aquatic grasses, and 
can never be rendered good for pasture without drain¬ 
ing. Although they produce an abundance of green, 
and apparently succulent herbage, the animals are in¬ 
variably poor, afford but little milk, and coi-ne to the 
barn in autumn lean and enfeebled. High grounds, 
although they are more liable to be seriously affected 
by drought, have the advantage of producing a more 
nutritious quality of food ; the grasses are short, sweet, 
and highly nutritive, and animals pastured upon them 
gain rapidly in flesh, and produce not only a larger 
quantity of milk, but that of a superior quality. Yet 
the best pasture lands, like the grass and cultivated 
soils, in general, will nevertheless, in time become 
sterile; the more valuable kinds of grass will “run 
out,” and be supplanted by others of a less desirable 
kind or entirely worthless class. Nature, in this, seems 
to corroborate the importance of a rotary system of 
cultivation, with respect to all the more valuable pro¬ 
ductions. After producing a certain class of plants, 
for a stated or definite period, the soil appears to 
weary of it and to demand a change. We see in our 
forests, that the oak succeeds the pine and the pine 
the oak. So the minor productions. Corn cannot be 
cultivated with success on the same soil, more than 
three years in succession at most. Wheat never suc¬ 
ceeds more than two, and clover and the other culti¬ 
vated grasses deteriorate after yielding a few crops, and 
finally depreciate and disappear. By breaking up our 
pasture grounds, occasionally, applying manures and 
plaster, and stocking down with fresh seed, we should 
find the soi would be vastly benefited and improved. 
Where the surface is such as not to favor this kind of 
amelioration, the use of plaster, ashes, lime, and 
other similar fertilizers, is of great benefit. I have 
seen poudrette, guano, bone-dust, &c., used with good 
success, especially on sandy soils for pasture. But as 
to guano, I cannot recommend it for this purpose, at 
the present high price. 
My plan for the last named soil, is to turn under a 
good crop of grass in August or September, and sow 
half a bushel of timothy, and red and white clover 
equally mixed, and apply three bushels of plaster to 
the acre as early as the first to the tenth of Sept., and 
keep off the cattle until the middle of the ensuing 
May ; this is all that will be needed for several years, 
until the grass plants begin to fail, then they may be 
manured with good barn-yard manure as a top-dress¬ 
ing in the fall, and sow three or four bushels of plaster 
in the spring, and you will find the results all that is 
desirable. 
Another thing, very desirable and important to hav¬ 
ing good pastures, is to know the quality of the soil 
and its chemical constituents, and then the kind of 
grasses that will produce the most nutrition to the ani¬ 
mals to be fed, whether for milk or flesh ; for the great 
and fundamental doctrine from whence all our reason¬ 
ing on the subject of animal nutrition, is the identity 
or almost identity, of tho principle of vegetable and 
animal body. The conclusion founded upon this iden¬ 
tity is, that with slight modifications, the vegetable 
principles are assimilated by the animal frame—the 
albuminous being converted into flesh and muscle, the 
oily ingredients into fat, and the mineral salts into 
bone and other solid parts. In the dairy, next to a 
good cow, is-the importance of good food to the pro¬ 
duction of a good article of butter or cheese. Many 
dairymen are disappointed in not having a good article, 
and frequently lay tho blame to the dairymaid, when 
the real truth is, the fault is in not providing good feed 
and pure water for the cows. G. t. 
Side-hill Blow on Level Ground. 
Messrs. Tucker & Son —In answer to “ J. H.” in 
Co. Gent, of June 10, as to side-hill plows, I would say 
that two years ago I purchased a side-hill plow. I 
have now used it two seasons, and have come to the 
conclusion that if I owned a level prairie farm even, 
I would have no other plow on the premises. I like it 
everywhere ; and I will tell you my reasons, so that 
you can judge Tor yourself. 
1st. You can plow a piece of ground quicker with a 
side-hill plow than you can to go around it with a com¬ 
mon plow, because the furrows are all long. 
2d. It saves making “dead” furrows and ridges. I 
usually turn the furrow one way one year and the oth¬ 
er way the next year, unless the land is very steep. 
3d. It saves turning on and treading down what is 
plowed, as we are obliged to when we go around the 
“ land.” 
4th. We find we can plow around stumps and stones, 
and up to fences better with a side-hill plow than with 
a common plow. 
I know side-hill plows are a little heavier than com¬ 
mon ones, and it is some more work to learn both oxen 
to go in the furrow. The plow I have used turns 
sward-land as well as I could wish, where it is level— 
as well as common plows, I think. It is about heavy 
enough for one pair of oxen to break up with, but a 
lighter one would be better for “ old land.” E. Graves, 
Jr. Asli/ield, Mass. 
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