10 
ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
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in the spring—very early if you please. Then sow your wheat, oats or barley, flax oi 
spring rye—whichever you please. And now comes a verv special point, I believe - 
one of very great importance, and that is, sow your grass seed on the very same dai 
you do your grain. My experience has taught me that grass seed wants aneven start 
with your gram. This being done with the above and the following well defined 
rules, the mistakes of your life will be less. 
Drag or scrape the ground lightly after seeding for grass. 1 need not put in that 
word “ lightly.” I had better say finely, for there is but little danger of doing too 
much. And here is one more mistake of my life in seeding for grass, and many other 
men to my certain knowledge have done the same thing over and over again/ That 
is, careless sowing. Grass seed is very small and light seed. If sown by hand, or even 
by machinery, the wind has a great tendency to detract it from its proper place upon 
the ground, therefore leaving it very streaked—some places with scarcely any seed, 
while other places will have double the amount required. This is extremely easy to 
happen when sown by hand. The greatest fault practiced in sowing by hand is in 
sowing too wide, or in trying to sow too wide. Better sow narrow throughs with ex¬ 
treme care when sowing by hand. When sowing by machinery much depends upon 
its being well adjusted for its work. This is one of the important factors in seeding 
for grass. “ The best way to do it.” Do it well. 
One thing more—a question that will probably be hard to settle. That is, the 
amount ot seed to be sown to the acre. The different localities, circumstances, con¬ 
ditions and wants of each and every man makes this question more and more unset¬ 
tled. Ihe man, in our opinion, who wants to seed for the purpose of raising timothy 
or clover or other grass, for the purpose of raising seed therefrom, will need to sow 
less seed than he who seeds for pasture or hay. The old lady who had one of the best 
recipes for making the best cake in the world, will come as near this question as will 
generally be agreed upon. Her recipe as near as I can remember it, was like this : 
lake some flour, a little pinch of salt, a small amount of laru, just enough soda, and 
cut the pieces according to the company you have.” If I knew just how much seed 
of each kind to sow to the acre to suit each and every man, I would tell you. I hope 
to learn before I leave this convention. But there is one point in seeding for grass 
tor pasture, upon which I have decided convictions. That is this: Seed for hay 
rather thickly, and mow for two years, and pasture in the fall after hay harvest only 
and that very lightly. I would also let hay get quite ripe before cutting. For getting 
best results tor pasture, I mean permanent pasture, after land has been broken and 
tilled tor a term of years. I have other decided convictions as to the best—the very 
best way to seed for pasture in many—very many cases. That is, to drain your land 
well, and never break it up. That is, hardly ever. 
The sweetest, the best, the most pasture is obtained from the native sod, tamed by 
long continued pasturing, other things being equal. And, as I said before, good drain¬ 
age is one of those requisites. 
. . A^d n , 0 w brother farmers, the grass crop, whether in its green, succulent state or 
m its dried form of hay, is of momentous value—one of the most important factors of 
oui farm pioducts. And certainly the man who makes two blades of grass grow in 
place of one, or doubles this valuable crop of his farm, and teaches others to do it, is 
and must be a great benefactor of his race. And as to the general average of the 
whole country, this can be easily done ; not by what I and others can tell you alone, 
but by doing many, very many things that you and I know how to do now. 
As to various other grasses of whatever kinds we may wish to cultivate, the pro- 
cessin detail for the best way to do it, is very nearly the same. There are many more 
practical matters of very large moment in this seeding for grass. You and I know 
k. vy ill we do it? Do we do it? That is this : Make — save ; save your manure. Make 
it early; make it late. Save it early; save it all the time, and use it upon your grass. 
Ihat is the best way to do it. Ho! There is more to be done to make it the best way. 
ine quality of no kind of grass is good of its kind, grown in cold, wet, sour ltlnd. 
Drainage, then, will be one more important factor in seeding for grass, and this is one 
of the best ways to do it. 
Last week the dairymen of Wisconsin and other states held a convention at Mil¬ 
waukee, m which it is reported, per Chicago Tribune , that Brother Jonathan Perriam, 
of Illinois, was called upon to talk about grass, and it was said that he dis¬ 
coursed about as follows : “ That the Good Book affirmed that ‘ all flesh is grass,’ but 
it is nowhere found that all grass would make flesh, and it would not. Many intel¬ 
ligent people thought everything eaten by cattle or herbivorous animals was grass, 
but such was not the case. Clover and pea-vines were not grasses, but all grains, in¬ 
cluding corn, sorghum and sugar cane, and the alternate leaved plants, only except¬ 
ing buckwheat, were grass, lie said the grain farmer cared little about grasses for 
feed, and that beef could be made from coarser grasses than could dairy products, 
lie though it a mistaken idea that because a grass was good in England it would be 
good here. I here were in reality only one hay grass and three pasture grasses, and 
those would grow anywhere they could take root. Red-top was the best cow grass, 
