The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1869-10-01
MARIETTA GEORGIA
Marietta. Georgia.
Friday Morning Oct, 4, 1860.
MEADOW LANDS AND HOW TO
MANAGE THEM.

M6AOOW LANL5 AND AOW 10
MANAGE THEM.
Mr.. N. PlTtf, of Bradford county,,
Pennsylvania, made some sensible re-
marks recently before the American In-
stitutc Farmers Club. He was giving
his experience in tho management Of.
grass lands. lie stated that it was his
practice after seeding down to grass not
to plough the land again in less than
eight years. He has one meadow which
has been moved for sixteen successive
years, and "it was never better, he said,
than now" Indeed he has found that
his meadows under the right treatment
"grow better as they grow older"
Now what is this right treatment -
Simply to rrta1s annually to the soil tie
cq,6cdlcntS iii manure achich haze been
taken front it III crops. The whole SC,
cret Of successful farming lies in that
ono sentence.
But this thing is to be understood. ~
No land that is naturally poor and thin
will grow good crops of grass, or Of any
thing else, for any successive number Of
years. The presumption is, and we dc.
duco the fact from Mr. Flatt's general
mode of farming, that he never puts
down any land to grass that is not nat
urally rich or has not been made SO by
high manuring. This is the first con-
sideration-the second is that the soil
shall be deeply and thoroughly plowed
and reduced by repeated plowings and
borrowings to the finest possible condi-
ton Of tilth--no clods--no stones-no
balks. The third is that the soil shall
be clean; that there shall be neither
weeds nor briars nor wild grasses 20 run
out the cultivated ones. With land so
enriched and so prepared there il no
earthly reason why the grass should not
improve from year TO year as Mr.. Platt
says that it does.
~ keep up my meadows" he says,
"Jy returning to them aUHe hay ttatraS
taken from them and by sowing bushcl
of gypsum per acre each year" That
is to say, he feeds off all his hay on the
farm, and returns it to the meadows from
which it was taken in the shape Of ma
nure. This manure he applies annual
" as top,dressing. The result is that
it produces as much worth in grass as it
would have done in grain, and repro
daccS again in turf And here follows
an important matter. "My turf" he
says, 'wlren ready for ploughing under
is solid body of grass roots, twelve
inches deep or more, ard SO thick on top
that no soil can be seem
1t is the custom of English landlords
in letting their farms on long leases to
stipuIatc that onc-third OF the land shall
be kept in permanent grasses The
consequence is that on soils adapted to
grass the Sod improves year after year,
being thickened annually by the drop
ping of the under leaves, which thus
cover the soil with mat of dead leaves,
keeping it moist in the drycst weather,
and rich by the gradual decay Of the
leaves.
We have always urged on large farms,
where the soil was suitable, that dairy
farming OF. the lines Of raiiroad, within
easy distance Of great cities, should be
combined with the cultivation OF the or
binary crops. By this means the hay,
stra~' and fodder is fed on the farm in
stead Of being sold from it, and the ma
nure SO produced tends graduallyto en-
rich the soil without having to resort to
commercial fertilizers. Where dairy
farming cannot be pursued, stock feeding
will often be found desirable. We do
not mean stock raising; that is very
different matter, but the purchase of
certain number Of lean cattle annually
and fattening them for market. In this
way the value Of the hay, straw, fodder,
roots and corn is returned in the shape
OF beef, and there is the extra profit Of
large quantities Of manure besides. -
Extravagant as the statement appears
Mr. Plat said that one such turf as he
described was, in his opinion, when
turned under, equal to one hundred and
sixty tons of first class barr
nurc.
But where hay for mari -
a more valuable coInnf
used for dairy puraaso