Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1862-01-23
THE EVENING STAR.
improving Pasture Lands.
rRsad before the Concord Farmers Club, b
Iacoh B. Earmef.l

fRad before the Concord Farmers Club, by
Jacob B. Farmer
The subject is one, like all other agricuitu-
raj topics, that must be met according to cir
cumstsnces. Every one knows that our bodily
wants are varied by location. temperature, and
a thousand incidents that cannot be foreseen
So with the Improvement OF pasture lands, and
all other agricultural operations:
Cold, wet land may be greatly improved by
thorough drainage; drainage Is not the less
important because we wish the land for pas
turage. Much Of our hill lands are too wet to
produce good, sweet feed; water grasses and
rushes Of all kinds are q sure omen of too much
surface water; cows that run on such pastures
are sure to give milk Of an ordinary quality;
consequently, butter produced from such milk
will be inferior.
You probably would like to know what is to
be done with such lands. Were 1 skilled IN
this point certainly could not give directions
without seeing or knowing the land There
IS however one general rule that will apply
to all wet lands, where grass or grain is the
produce sought; that is, thorough drainage;
Keep the water at least eighteen inches below
the surface, and my word for it, you will not
be troubled with drown shay" knot grass,
or any Of the rushes.
have seen low lands greatly improved by
ploughing twice year for three years in sue
csssion, without taking of q crop, but this,
however, was where the land was too far from
L
provement could have been made in less time,
had there been oats, clover, millet, or some
other crop ploughed under whilst green.
There is another class Of lands, although
high and dry, yet covered with stones, brush
and briars, that looks forbidding to the plough
man. have known such lands to be trebled
In value in three years, by stocking heavily
with sheep, which course / think highly Of.
There are, however, two or three objections,
or distractions, in the way Of this mode of i'm
provement, in Middlesex county. One objec-
ton is the high price Of fencing stuff or the
want of a breed of sheep that will not jump or
rsmble, which, by-the-by, have heard are
to be found in Essex county. Another is, that
faithful, but almost always useless animal the
dog, whose ravages can be greatly checked by
enforcing the laws Of our state.
we can remove the foregoing objections,
know Of no way 80 easy, cheap, and withal so
profitable, as to stock our rocky and bushy
pastures with sheep. 1 believe il to be well
authenticated fact that sheep will eat MANY
more kinds Of plants than either the horse or
COW, and several varieties the sheep will utterly
destroy, that neither horse nor COW will touch
There are several other methods of renoya-
ting pastures, such as sowing on plaster, salt
and lime, either Of which are good fertilizers
on certail soils. Salt think the best for Kill
ling brush, and, if used freely, will kill nearly
all kinds, except the cherry, or stone fruit
trees; but have not experimental enough
with either to give any specific directions, al
though l think them worthy Of trial in small
way.
have, however, used salt for killing elm
trees and small punches Of brush in my NOW.
lands, with good success, never having but one
elm start, and that soon died. My way is to
cut the tree so as to leave a hollow in the
stump, put in from pint to quart of salt in
each hollow, and the work is done. will re-
Ter Tor moment TO that class of lands general
~ known by the name of pine, or sandy plains
They are used as pastures, frequently from
one-fourth to three-fourths. of the time, and
often more, and when used as such they may
well BE called WORKOUT PASTURES; many of
them have been made so by continuous crop
ping with rye, without manure These lands
may be greatly improved by the application
of meadow mud, or the turning in Of green
crops.-Nsr0 England Farmer.