1854 . 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
be smothered and then dried up. After a few days, 
the harrow is applied, which separates the grass from 
the soil and rolls it up into a kind of rope-like wads, in 
which state it is easily raked together for burning or 
being carted off. This leaves the ground beautifully 
prepared for the plow. 
The reader may ask, as I did many times, without 
ever being fully satisfied with the answer returned, 
“ Why not plow this grass under-—bury it so deep that 
it will never be heard from again ?” The answer was 
uniformly the following or something like it:—“We 
know not how it may be in your dryer climate, but, 
with us, burying grass will not kill it.” Indeed one 
of Mr. Mechi’s principal reasons for preferrrag"Samu- 
elson’s Digger to the “ doomed plow,” as he says the 
plow is “doomed,” is, that it leaves the greatest wads 
on the surface, where, he says, there is a chance for 
them to die, while, if plowed under, they are nearly 
sure to live. I could not but think that our double, 
Michigan plow would bury even these semi-immortal 
grasses, so much complained of in English fields, be¬ 
yond the .possibility of ever coming again alive into 
the “ upper light.” But English farmers think other¬ 
wise ; and if they are right in believing that nothing 
but five, or a six months’ trampling in the barn-yard, 
will kill their grasses, it only shows one of the many 
characteristic differences between farming in their cli¬ 
mate and ours. 
Several French farmers, whose fields I visited, prac¬ 
tice a. sort of scarifying, but very different from that of 
the English, and, as they explain the matter, for a 
very different reason. The work is-done, so far as I 
saw, with the common plow. It consists in cutting a 
very thin slice, two inches perhaps on one side and 
running to an edge on the other, some 10 or 12 inches 
wide, and turning it upon an equal unplowed width— 
cutting and covering, as we should say. Their object 
seems to be, not so much to kill the grass, for, in their 
sunny land, it would die fast enough if turned under, 
but to subject it to a partial decay before being buried 
more deeply, in order that it may the sooner undergo 
a complete decomposition, and thus give up its ele¬ 
ments to the coming crop. This is done, from 10 to 15 
days, depending a little upon what the weather may 
be, before the final plowing and harrowing for winter 
grain. The reasoning, by which they sustain this 
course, seemed to me rather ingenious than solid; for 
I believe there is very little danger, in a sunny cli¬ 
mate, like that of France, or our own, but that any 
thing in the way of green crops will be decomposed 
soon enough after being turned under; and if so, that 
skittering, half-way plowing, of which I have spoken 
(enough to make an American farmer ache all over to 
see) must have more of labor than of profit in it. 
Respectfully yours, . J. A. Nash. 
Important Suggestions about Grasses, &c. 
species. In the face of this, why are not more species 
cultivated on the same farm! It would be perfectly 
practical on the larger ones. 
In this State but a very few kinds of grass seed are 
sown besides the common herds-grass(Phleum pratense,) 
for the production of hay or pasture; many others are 
found,but their presence is purely accidental. I do not 
allude to clover, as that is not a g rass, strictly speaking. 
Besides many rare kinds, more than sixty species 
of grass are spoken of by botanists, as “common' 1 in the 
New England, Middle and Western States, and a large 
number of these are found in pasture lands self-propa¬ 
gated, as the term is. Their seeds are not sown, nor is 
care taken to cultivate them, although many are con¬ 
sidered valuable for pasturage, and are well known to 
most farmers. 
I was pleased and interested in seeing a collection of 
grass seeds in the English Department in the Crystal 
Palace, New-York, a short time since. There were 
represented some twenty-five species of grass seeds, sev¬ 
eral of which are unknown to our American farmers, 
which might possibly prove valuable here, to cultivate 
alone, or mixed with those we now have. Among these 
were five species of spear grass, (Poa.) Over twenty 
species of this genus are found in our pastures, impart¬ 
ing to some great value. Still they are left to propa¬ 
gate themselves; there is no care whatever taken to pre¬ 
serve them. Among seven species of fescue grass, 
(Festuca,) four were species unknown here, and if in¬ 
troduced might prove as valuable as some of those we 
now have in our sheep pastures. 
By the same exhibitor were also shown seeds of four 
species of clover, (Trifolium.) We cultivate but one, 
the red, although white and yellow are by no means 
uncommon or unimportant. Also many species and 
varieties of grain, some of which we are unacquainted 
with. In the collection were nearly fifty varieties of 
peas, nearly forty of beans, and over thirty of tur- 
neps, &c. 
In this connection I saw last summer, a new species 
of clover from California, said to be indigenous to that 
country, that bids fair to be of value in our clover dis¬ 
tricts. Time, however, must test that, for I am well 
aware that many very promising species soon degen¬ 
Messhs. Editors —The farmers are very unlike the 
gardeners in one respect, e. g., in endeavoring to secure 
the greatest number of species of plants for cultivation, 
and why is this? We see horticulturists zealously 
searching every land for new and rare species, gather¬ 
ing them from every clime/and at any expense, while 
the agriculturist is content to cultivate but a small 
number of those that are adapted to his soil and his 
wants. 
Experience and observation show that the larger 
the number of species cultivated, (unless the number 
be very high,) the better they can be grown. The 
same field is not sown with the same crop for a long 
series of years, but with different ones in rotation. 
Change of seed is often attended with profitable results, 
even in merely changing the varieties of the same 
erate in our climate and soils. 
I think this a subject worthy of more attention than 
it has hitherto received from the mass of our farmers, 
and hence call attention to it, as a field from which we 
may yet reap rich harvests. Your ob’t serv’t, Wm. 
H. Brewer. Ovid , N. Y., Jan., 1854. 
P. S. I see in your hist number, an inquiry relating 
to the propriety of laying blocks of wood in cellar walls, 
(p. 56.) and your answer is, that such blocks will last a 
very long time if excluded from dampness. Now this 
is a condition not to be attained in cellar walls, for 
mortar, whether of water lime, or of common lime, is 
permeable to moisture and air, and such blocks soon 
decay unless they have undergone some chemical pre¬ 
paration to prevent this; if-placed in walls above ground 
they might last longer. W. H. B. 
