The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1860-03-10
From Ms Amerioan AarienIlurali.l
The Hay Crop.

The high price of hay this winter, reach
ing in some places twenty-five and thirty
dollars ton, leads us to notice the great
importance of this crop. The t5scrop of
1880 was estimated at not quite fourteen
millions of tons, worth in the aggregate at
least one hundred and fifty millions of dol
lars, and the grass crop from pastures is
worth as much more, making three hundred
and fifty millions of dollars as the annual
yield of grasses. This is none the less valua-
BILE, because it is mainly consumed at home.
Indeed, it is rule, that it win pay farmer a
larger profit to use up all his grass and hay
upon his own premises, than to sell it at the
market price.
This is the most economical method of
increasing the productiveness of his farm
If all the hay be consumed at home, it will
make a large heap of manure if it be saved,
and this will bring larger crops of hay,
grain, and vegetables, to feed yet larger
numbers of animals The outside limits of
the productiveness of the soil has not yet
been reached by the most skillfnl cultiva-
tors. The hay crop for the country does
not average ton to the acre. Some farms
average three tons, and single acres are
known to produce four and five tons. There
can be no doubt that most farms can double
their present yield of grass and hay, to the
They want more of these crops, and cannot
farm successfully until they have them.
For dry uplands, an occasional cropping
with grain and roots, as now pursued, will
no doubt be advisable. These crops, how
ever, should be accompanied with much lar
ger quantities of manure. Instead of ten
and twenty, there should be thirty and forty
loads to the acre, on poor soil. With occa-
sional exceptions, the pillow, also, should be
allowed to run deep-ten, twelve, or four
teen inches, instead of four, five and six
The grasses are as much benefited by a
deep, loose soil as other crops. -..t.
Thicker seeding would also be great
advantage in many cases. Three or four
dollars a bushel for herdsgrass, and II cents
q pound for clover seed, seem large prices,
and there is a temptation to stint the guam
tity, which many farmers do not resist. But
the best land will not bring full crop, I'M
less it is well stocked. A half bushel of
herdsgrass seed, or three pecks of red top,
is none 600 much per acre. "A man should
economic in any other place, sooner than
in seed sowing. aA tH'
But the best lands for grass are those
which are naturally moist---the sales of re-
claimed swamp. If these are properly
drained, they may be kept in grass without
blowing. Lands that have large per cent
OF vegetable matter IN them, peat and muck
swamps, are greatly benefited by top
dressing of fine gravel, or loan from the
adjacent uplands. 1.-THE surface is cleared of
brush, and made smooth, the grass seed may
be sown Immediately upon the gravel, with
out narrowing or brushing The most of it
catches. Even ifthe grounds are too soft for
carting in summer, the gravel can be put
ON when it is frozen. The seed may be
sown any time in February or March
Draining, SO that the water will not stand
any where within foot of the surface, is
essential to the highest success Two feet
or more would be better still. SD
Such lands will ordinarily bear large crops
of grass, from two or three tons to the acre,
and may be kept in high state of produc-
tiveness, BY top dressing of good compost
once in three years. They are worth more
for grasses than fof any other crop, and they
viii pay better for good husbandry than any
other part of the farm. -.