Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1858-11-26
farmers Column.
Essay on Clearing Land Infested with
Sassafras and Briers.


Repeated cropping in corn, wheat, or
oats, will but multiply these pests The
best plau to eradicate them, | have
found (after many trials) to be moving
them off in the month of May, and sub
Iecting the land to close grazing A
field Of mine, in 1885, was, after corn,
SO thickly set with sassafras and briers,
that friend remarked that it afforded
good swarth nearly all over. 1t was
sown in wheat and grass in the spring,
and was afterwards grazed for four years,
the utmost limit Of its capabilty. The
bushes aud briers were moved but once,
and, to my great delight, the entire field
had not left upon it brier or bush, ex-
cept where sassafras tree had been
grabbed up. Grubbing thickset field
is very costly operation, and will not
cure the evil The idea prevails in the
Valley Of Virginia, that our lands on
this side Of the mountains are far more
liable 70 such pests than theirs The
reason for this impression is obviously
net in the greater liability Of our lands
to be 50 infested, but ia the different
modes Of treating them which prevail in
these localities respectively. Their lands
are set in grass when fresh, and grazed
from the year they are cleared, by which
means they are kept under, whilst ours
have generally been worked as long as
they would pay, and in many instances
much longer, and not grazcd, because
we had but little stock, and were only
moved to very limited extent; on
which account the evil complained of has
not been checked by the remedial pro-
cess have suggested.
Let me not, however, be misunder-
stood on this subject The moving re-
commended refers only to the bushes and
briers. lie who has an abundant supply
IF corn stalks. shucks, wheat straw and
shatf, has no need Of hay for stock Of any
kind II near the market, and hay can
be sold for one dollar cash, then NOW it;
but if at a distance from market, aud the
staple crops are corn and wheat, NOR
not. 1t is my decided opinion that the
cutting Of a crop of clover hay, and the
taking away of the seed, will exhaust
land as much as crop of corn Rich
flats will stand it, but common high land
cannot
The question may be asked, why Craze
If so much opposed to hay making? Be
cause cash paymeHs are made to the
land in grazing it, whilst but little is re-
turned to it when hay is cut and fed on
the farm, and nothing when it is sold off.
Again, the grazing process proceeds
slowly, and but gradually despoils the
land of its covering, while moving leaves
it suddenly denuded and exposed to the
blazing sun. | keep as fat horses and
oxen as most persons, yet have not, on
farm peculiarly adapted to the business
cut five tons of hay within the space of
twenty years Let those who have rich
moist flats institute careful. experiments
10 test the relative value of their produc-
ton in corn and in hay. 1t will be found
that the corn will give at least fly bush
els of grain per acre, while the rough
food from that acre will amount to at
least as much in quantity, and be fully
equal to hay 50 far as it is eaten. The
difference, then, in favor of the corn
crop will be the nett gain to the amount
of the grain produced, the o9al of the
crop being fully equal in value to the
production of the same quantity of land
in hay -1muicda Farmer.