1858. 
THE CULTIVATOR 
3U 
Experiment in Draining. 
Every judicious experiment in draining, unlike 
many other experiments, must always result in success. 
It may therefore seem unnecessary to record the re¬ 
sults; but so decisive and striking do they generally 
prove, and at the same time they are so little appre¬ 
ciated by those who have never practiced thorough 
draining, that we are always glad to record these re¬ 
sults for the encouragement of beginners. 
The Editor of the New-England Farmer gives in a 
late number the details of a recent experiment. Stone 
drains two feet deep were first employed some years 
ago, and their immediate effect was to increase the 
product of the low, wet land through which they were 
cut, from one ton of poor coarse hay per acre to “three 
tons of good English hay per acre.” But the drain¬ 
ing was not deep enough ; the ditches gradually be¬ 
came choked, and rushes and coarse grass resumed 
their growth. 
The land was then thoroughly drained by cutting 
four feet deep, and laying in pipe tile. Previous to 
this operation, attempts were made to till it; it could 
not be plowed, however, till about the close of the 
spring months, and even then was so wet that the fur¬ 
rows were left in compact masses, which were afterwards 
broken to pieces with great labor by the hoe. The 
last spring (the draining having been completed,) it 
could have been easily plowed “ at any time after the 
10th of April; and, during the wet month of May 
which followed, and at any time since, notwithstand¬ 
ing the constant succession of rains, the soil has been 
so light and porous as to fall to pieces whenever it has 
been worked. It is now covered with the heaviest 
crops that have ever stood upon it.” 
Timothy—Early and Late Autumn Seeding—II. 
In a recent notice of the different seasons of sowing 
timothy and other grass seeds, we promised to recur 
to the consideration of autumn seeding, in some re¬ 
spects, as a more favorable time than spring or sum¬ 
mer for that purpose. 
3. Early fall seeding is frequently practiced, and in 
favorable seasons with eminent success. As instances, 
we may refer to the crop of timothy seed, which took 
the first premium of the N. Y. State Ag. Society, 
grown by Mr. Hayward, near Rochester. It was 
seeded on spring wheat, at the time of sowing that 
grain, but failed entirely. After harvest the ground 
was harrowed, and eight quarts of seed sown ; in the 
spring it looked poorly, but came on rapidly, becom¬ 
ing a wonder to all who saw it. One acre, saved for 
seed, produced nine and one-sixth bushels. Another 
case is that of Mr. Holmes, of Greenwich, N. Y., re¬ 
lated in the Transactions for 1855, who sowed one half 
of a lot with oats and grass seed in the spring, on the 
other half sowed oats alone, and after they were har¬ 
vested about the 1st of September, turned it over 
shallow and sowed sixteen quarts of timothy seed per 
acre, harrowing it in lightly. It gave more fall feed 
than the spring seeding, was much more free from 
weeds, and gave three dollars worth more of hay, the 
first season. It was all clear timothy and much more 
valuable for seed on that account, a portion of it being 
reserved for that purpose. 
If the season is favorable and the land in good or¬ 
der, early fall seeding may succeed as well as can be 
desired, but in some trials of it—sowing on oat stub¬ 
ble after harrowing the same—the fall proving very 
dry—our experiment was a comparative failure. The 
grass which came up in autumn, did not get sufficient 
growth to withstand the winter; and this is the most 
potent cause of loss in early autumn seeding. The 
roots get but a slight hold upon the earth, and a few 
freezings and thawings and they lose it entirely. 
4. Late autumn seeding has not been practiced to 
any considerable extent to our knowledge. Our at¬ 
tention was first called to it in the case above noted, 
when from the drought being continued into winter, 
our fall sown grass seed failed to vegetate in autumn, 
but came on very fairly the next season, starting with 
the spring and getting a growth sufficient to enable it 
to resist the drought of summer. The grass was thin, 
however—came in too thinly to produce as large or 
clean a crop as might otherwise have been expected. 
A correspondent of the N. E. Farmer , who has 
made a variety of experiments in seeding to timothy 
and red-top, has been most successful in late fall seed¬ 
ing, sowing as late as the 20th of November, or later, 
if winter does not then set in. He has cut a ton and 
a half of hay per acre, in a favorable year for grass 
the first season; and over three tons the two years fol¬ 
lowing. He gives plenty of seed, sixteen quarts of 
timothy and a bushel of red-top, and fits the ground 
in first rate order. 
The importance of proper preparation and manur¬ 
ing for sowing grass seed cannot be too strongly insist¬ 
ed upon. Labor applied here is as certain to pay— 
and pay largely as upon any other crop, and we should 
experience far less failures in seeding to grass, did we 
give the matter the attention it deserves. 
-» - » m - 
Mammoth. Red Clover. 
Messrs. Eds —In the Co. Gent, of 12th of Aug , 
Mr. Dwire of Kentucky, inquires respecting “Mam¬ 
moth Red Clover,” and where it can be obtained. I 
will just say to him, that I have a brother in Illinois 
who is somewhat largely engaged in raising the kind 
of clover seed that Mr. D. inquires for, as also timothy 
seed. 
In March 1857, my brother forwarded to me by ex¬ 
press, one bushel of his clover seed ; a portion of which 
I sowed in the spring following, with wheat and oats. 
This season I have had a prodigious crop of clover, 
yielding, I have no doubt, at the rate of at least four 
tons of dry hay per acre. Much of it was five feet 
high; it lodged badly, somewhat to the injury of its 
feeding quality. A portion of the crop was cut for hay, 
and the balance left for seed, which is now (28th of 
August) uncut, the seed not yet fully ripened. I 
should very much liked to have seen the mowing ma¬ 
chine that could have walked through the field without 
clogging, as also the plow that could have put this five 
feet clover out of sight. 
My brother’s address is, Charles H. Bartlett, Dia¬ 
mond Lake P. 0., Lake county, Illinois. 
I paid four dollars express charges on the bushel of 
seed. It came from Chicago via Boston, to my place 
in New Hampshire If it had been forwarded per 
railroad as freight, the cost probably would not have 
i amounted to half the sum charged by the express com- 
' panies. Levi Bartlett. Warner, N. II. 
