Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1873-03-28
AGRICULTURAL.
For the Sentinel.
Improvement Of Land.
NO. IT,.

in this communication propose to offer TO
your readers method of improving the soil
in this section by laying down 10 grass.
We are all aware that land laid down TO artif.
cial grasses for one or two years is in some de-
gree rested or recruited, and is fitted for the bet
Ter production of after crops, especially corn.
Suppose we let It lie year longer in grass; we
only follow one Of the received modes ofbring-
ing back to a sonnd condition a soil that has
been exhausted by injudcious cropping.
/ am free to admit that land thus laid down
with artificial grasses diminshes in value again
after three or four years. and only by slow de-
grees acquires a thick sward'of rich, nourish-
ing natural heritage.
But, granting that grass land does thus gen.
orally increase in value, three important facts
must be borne in mind before we attempt to
assign the cause of this Improvement, or the
circumstances under which il is likely to take
place for the longest time, and to the greatest
extent.
First, the value of the grass in any given spot
may increase for an indefinite period, but il
will never improve beyond certain extent; il
will necessarily be limited, as all other crops
are, by the quality of the land. Hence, the
mere laying down to grass will not make all
land good, however long it may be.
Second, some grass lands will retain the
good condition.they thus slowly acquire, fora
very long period, and without manuring, in
the same way and upon nearly the same princi-
pie that some rich corn lands have Yielded
successive crops for years. without manure
The improvement takes place by the gradual
accumulation of dark brown soil in yegeta-
BILE matter, which soil thckens or decpens in
proportion to the time during which it is al
lowed to lie in grass. IT is law of nature
that this accumulation takes place more rap
idly in the temperate than in the tropical eli
mates; and it would appear as if the conse-
quent darkening of the soil were intended
among other purposes, to enable it to absorb
more Of the SUMS warmth, aud thus more
speedily to bring forward vegetation where
the average temperature is low and the sum-
mers comparatively short.
II the soil be very light and sandy, the thick
ening of the vegetable matter is sooner arrest
ed; if it be more heavy land the Improvement
continues for longer period.
When the young grass throws up its leaves
INTO the air, from which ii receives so much of
its nourishment, its throws down its roots
into the soil in quest of food of another kind.
The leaves may be mown or cropped by ami
mails and carried off the field, but the roots re-
main in the soil, and as they die, gradually
fill its upper part with vegetable matter. When
wheat is cut down the quantity of straw left
in the field in the form of stubble and roots is
sometimes greater than the quantity carried
off in the sheaf. Upon grass field two or
three tons of hay may be reaped from an acre;
and, therefore, from half ton to ton of dry
roots is annually produced and left in the soil.
II anything like its weight of roots die every
year in land kept in pasture, we can readily
understand how the vegetable matter in the
soil should gradually accumulate In arabic
land this accumulating is prevented by the
instant turning up of the soil by which the
n. The Gcai6;pg exposed to the free access
of air and moisture and being made to undergo
n more rapid decomposition.
But the roots and leaves Of the grasses con-
tain earthly and saline matters also. Along
with the dead vegetable matter of the soil, this
inorganic matter also accumulates in the form
of an exceedingly fine earthly powder Hence
enc cause of the universal fineness of the sur
face mould of old grass fields.
There are still other agencies at work by
inbf ba rf, IF L., T. a..
dergo change, as the roots of the grasses
penetrate into the soil they more or less open
up a way into it for the rains Now the rains
in nearly all lands when they have passage
downward, have a tendency to carry down
portion of this soil with them. They do so on
sandy soils more quickly after having been
laid down TO grass. Hence, the mechanical
action of the rains, slowly, in many localities.
yet surely, has tendency to tighten the sur
face soil by removing portion of its clay
This constitutes one of those natural agencies
by which important differences are ultimately
almost everywhere between the
surface crop-bearing soil and the subsoil on
which it rests
On soils that are light, which naturally con-
tain but little clay, the grasses will thrive
more rapidly, and thick sward will be SOON
err formed but the tendency of rains to wash
out the clay may prevent them from ever at
tanning that luxnriance which is observed up
on old, pastures in the clay lands.
would then freely advise to plow up the
old pastures on the surface of which this light
and most favorable soil has been long accumu-
lating, and the heavy soil found beneath will
be again mixed up with it; the vegetable mat
Ter will disappear rapidly by exposure to the
air during the frequent plowings.
Many have supposed that by sowing down
with the natural grasses thick and perma-
aent sward may at once be obtained and on
light loan land, rich in vegetable matter,
this method may, to certain extent, succeed;
but in heavy land in which stiff clay abouuds
and vegetable matter is defective, disappoint-
ment will often follow the sowing of the most
carefully selected seeds. BY this agency,
among other causes, of those adverted to, the
soil gradually changes, SO that it is unfit when
first laid down, to bear those grasses which
FIVE or ten years afterwards will spontaneous
" and uxuriantly grow upon it. Nature is
not regulated by one principle in the growth |
of corn aud by another in growing grass
the apparent difference in her procedure arises |
from real differences in our practice
GLAUCUS.
EULALIA, Montgomery Co.. Nd
--s-~
MuFFINs.-Mix quart of wheat -four with