PRACTICAL PAPERS—DAIRY FARMING. 
179 
The Meadow furnishes the material best calculated to 
sustain the life of the stock, contributing the exact substance 
necessary to form flesh and furnish milk, when made of the 
best variety of grasses. In preparing the ground for a 
meadow it is of the highest importance that the mechanical 
condition of the soil should be attended to, that it should be 
finely pulverized and to a depth of one foot at a minimum 
measurement ; it should be naturally or artificially under- 
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drained so as to be neither water-logged in wet weather nor 
hardened to the consistence of brick when dry; while the 
chemical condition should be such-as the word u rich 91 conveys 
to the mind. The meadow, is not for one year, but for many ; 
therefore, the surface should be as smooth as the harrow and 
roller can make it, to facilitate the gathering of the crop in as 
cheap and rapid a manner as possible. 
The quantity of seed necessary to stock an acre of land 
should be determined somewhat by the quality of the land to 
be seeded the first quality needing less than that which is less 
fertile. • Enough should be sown to ensure a “ catch ” suffi¬ 
ciently thick to make the plants fine and more succulent than 
that which is produced from thin seeding, which is usually 
coarse and harsh, with too much woody fibre. In my own 
practice twelve quarts of timothy and four quarts of medium 
red clover have been sufficient. Should Alsike clover be added,, 
one quart would make an improvement, while June grass, 
red top and white clover will soon find the way to, and fill all 
vacant places. The time of seeding should be as early in the 
spring as the condition of the soil will admit, or, if in autumn, 
the last of August or the first of September, not later than the 
fifteenth. We have had the best results at the last named 
period. 
With what crop shall we seed down? If our main 
object be to establish the meadow, we would answer with 
none of them, but if any, we would name barley in the spring 
seeding, or rye in the autumn ; but it is not best to so tempt 
Providence with our penuriousness; not well to make either 
