CARE OF HOME-MADE MANURE. 
Raise more pea vine hay and feed it to cows in winter instead of starv¬ 
ing them on shucks and straw, and thus improve the value of your 
manure, to say nothing of the improvement of the animal so fed. But it 
is not enough to make rich manure by good feeding. It must be handled 
so as to preserve its value, for the nitrogen in the manure leaves us very 
rapidly under certain conditions. If thrown out under the eaves where 
the rain falls on it, the portion of it most valuable for plants soon washes 
away. If thrown out in piles it soon heats, and the ammonia flies off into 
the air, thus losing that which costs 15 cents a pound to get in commer¬ 
cial fertilizer. The best place for manure is on the field where some 
plant can get the use of it. If you have a crop of crimson clover or rye 
to be followed in the spring with corn, scatter the manure as made on 
these crops; both they and the corn following will get the benefit. 
The next best way is to let the manure accummulate in the stable, 
always keeping sufficient bedding to absorb the urine. 
PASTURE. 
The keeping of live stock necessitates pasture for them in summer, 
and there is no section in which a permanent pasture cannot be main¬ 
tained if the proper grasses are used and they are properly treated. In 
all the upper red clay country the main reliance should be in orchard 
grass for a permanent pasture. The seeding must be heavy, for the sod 
should be quickly and thickly made. For the upland section a mixture 
of orchard grass, red top, and Virginia blue grass is excellent, sown one 
bushel (14 pounds) per acre. Do not sow any white clover, as it is not 
desirable where horses are to be pastured, slobbering them too much. 
Sow in September or October, harrowing in with smoothing harrow. 
Do not pasture it till late the following summer, and then but little. Best 
to give the grass a chance to seed, and increase the soil. The grasses 
named do not succeed so well on the level lands of the East. The Ber¬ 
muda grass, though hated by the cotton farmer, is the best pasture grass 
for the East. If care is used it can be kept out of the cotton fields, as it 
does not make seed here. It is a summer grass only, and needs the mix¬ 
ture of the Texas blue grass to make a winter pasture. While the Ber¬ 
muda grass should never be allowed in the upper red clay lands where 
other grasses can be grown, there is no better grass for pasture where it 
is at home, in the eastern section. 
CURING CLOVER HAY. 
The chief points to be observed are: (1) Cut as soon after blossom¬ 
ing as the state of the weather in your locality will admit; (2) never let 
the hay lie exposed to the sun long enough to crisp the leaves, but let 
the curing be done in the windrow, cock or barn; (3) never haul any in 
when damp with dew, either in morning or evening; (4) pack tightly 
in a clean barn, and on no account disturb it while heating. 
SECOND-CROP CLOVER. 
When not wanted to plow under for wheat, let it decay on the 
ground. It forms a mulch, thus preventing winter killing, and enriches 
the ground for future crops. 
27 
