366 
TIIE CULTIVATOR. 
Dec. 
the crop has been injured by the midge, he has since 
obtained an average equal to this. 
The means of improving the farm have not been 
extraordinary. The manure has been derived chief¬ 
ly from the live-stock kept on it. Muck, from a peat 
bog, has been used for compost, and to absorb the 
liquids of the stables and barn-yards. The princi¬ 
pal barn for stock has a cellar under the whole of it, 
into which the manure is thrown ; and Mr. H. is sat¬ 
isfied that this is far the best and most economical 
mode of keeping stable manure. All the excrements, 
liquid and solid, are here saved, and may be kept 
without loss till wanted. 
Besides the corn consumed on the farm, Mr. H. 
sold, last year, 500 bushels, and between 500 and 
600 bushels of oats. The latter grain usually yields 
fifty bushels to the acre, and the price obtained at 
the barn, has for two or three years been forty cents 
per bushel. Corn is usually worth fifty cents per 
bushel, and wheat one dollar. 
Mr. H, has this season commenced the manufac¬ 
ture of cheese. Thirty cows are kept on the farm. 
They will average 400 lbs. cheese each; which has 
been sold at a month old, at $6 per hundred. At 
this dairy, as well as most others we visited, the 
milk is heated by steam. A small boiler is used for 
generating the steam, which is conducted by pipes 
to the vats containing the milk. The milk is placed 
in tin vats, which are placed in wooden vats, so 
much larger than the tin ones as to leave a space of 
about two inches all round. This space is filled with 
water, and the steam is conducted into it. A boiler 
noticed in our October number, made by J. H. Bush- 
nell, Utica, is thought by some to possess advantages 
over those in common use. 
Mr. H. has made some observations in regard to 
*he application and effect of animal manures, which 
p.re worthy of notice. He has spread it on the sur¬ 
face, and has plowed it in at various depths, for vari¬ 
ous crops. The conclusion to which he has come, is, 
that the more thoroughly it is mixed with the soil, 
the better. When it is first applied, therefore, he 
prefers burying it with a shallow furrow; and when 
the manure is rotted, or the next time the ground is 
plowed, run the plow to the usual depth—not less 
than seven inches. This mixes the manure with the 
whole of the soil that is stirred. 
We hope at some future day to be able, under 
more favorable circumstances, to make a more tho¬ 
rough examination of the agriculture and resources 
of Oneida county. At present we can only tender 
our thanks to the officers of the Agricultural Socie¬ 
ty of the county, and various individuals, whose 
many favors will be long remembered. 
Seeding Grass Lands. 
Eds. Cultivator — I read in the October Culti¬ 
vator , an article on “ Seeding Grass Lands in Ken¬ 
tucky.” As more light was asked upon the subject, 
I thought a few remarks would not be out of place. 
And first, seeding grass lands in Connecticut, and 
in Kentucky, may be two things, as very different 
treatment may be required in the two States. Se¬ 
cond, it has been the practice, more or less, in this 
State, to seed down grass lands in the spring; with 
eats, barley or spring wheat, but more commonly 
with oats; and grass seed sown in this way gene¬ 
rally takes well. 
But there are some objections to this method of 
seeding. On lands that are intended for mowing, 
oats or barley will often grow very heavy; and be¬ 
fore cutting time, much of the straw will lodge or 
lie down, and in this case the young grass is very 
apt to be killed put. Then, if a sudden and severe 
drouth set in early in the season, the grass very of¬ 
ten proves a failure. 
Of late years, we have been more inclined to fall 
seeding on winter grain, as more certain of a good 
catch for timothy and red-top. And I am not 
aware, even with our cold winters, that grass is in 
much danger of killing out, if it has once become 
well set. One advantage of fall seeding is, that 
you can mow a crop of grass the next season, after 
the grain crop comes off; sometime in the month of 
August. This is not often the case, when seeding 
is done in the spring. Winter grains, such as 
wheat or rye, very seldom lodge, if they stand ever 
so heavy on the ground, so that the young grass 
will not be injured in this way. This, probably, is 
owing to the length of time the stalk is growing, 
as the straw is stiller, and has more silica, than 
those straws which have a rapid growth. Some 
farmers have had very good success in seeding to 
grass with buckwheat in the summer, which in 
some instances may do very well. 
A very good plan is practiced in some parts of 
Massachusetts, where meadow lands are rather 
moist, and are intended to be kept in grass without 
other cropping. Sometime in the month of August, 
the ground is very nicely turned over with a plow, 
the ground rolled down, and, if to be had, a good 
dressing of compost is spread on; then the grass 
seed is sowed and harrowed in evenly with a fine- 
tooth harrow; the whole then to be made smooth 
with the roller. The next season, a fine crop of 
grass can be cut; and managed in this way, the 
land can be kept constantly in grass. I do not ap¬ 
prove of the plan of sowing grass seed alone, with¬ 
out grain, unless it be in the way just mentioned, 
as in this case, there would no weeds spring up, 
from the inverted sward, to hinder the young grass 
coming to perfection. But to sow grass seed alone 
on mellow or stock ground, would be to just give 
up the land to weeds and foul grass at once. I 
think it altogether preferable to sow with some of 
the small grains. 
As to the amount of seed to be sown on an acre, 
there can be no certain rule laid down. Generally, 
however, light dry soils need more seed than moist 
soils. Thick grass is of better and finer qua¬ 
lity, than coarse and large, of the same kind. I 
have just now (Oct. 15,) seeded down about two 
acres with wheat, with a bushel of red top, and a 
half bushel of timothy seed, mixed together and 
sown in breadths of about six to eight feet to a cast, 
each way of the field, or at right angles. This is 
three pecks of seed on an acre, and if it have a 
good catch, it will give a good burden of grass 
next season, for mowing. Where land is in good 
heart, when it is laid down for mowing, enough clo¬ 
ver will come in without sowing any. If the land 
is intended for pasture, it is a good plan, to sow 
clover on a light snow in March, as it generally 
takes well sown in this way. In harrowing in 
grain and grass seed we do not like bush or brush 
harrows for covering the seed, as they are apt to 
draw the ground into heaps, and leave the seed un¬ 
even. But the light triangular harrow, of the 
Geddes pattern, with thirty teeth, is just the thing 
for covering grain and grass, seed; the surface t» 
be afterwards made smooth with the roller. 
When Mr. Sanders advises his Kentucky friend to 
avoid sowing red top, as being the worst of all the 
cultivated grasses, it is presumed he meant the ad¬ 
vice for his own State, and so far it may be all very 
well, for aught we know. But in New England, 
red top grass is considered one of the best of all the 
cultivated grasses for farm stock. Timothy is a 
