Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-12-11
FARM ANE GARDEN.
CLOVER AND ORCHARD GRASS.

and being close observer of and
reader of the Agricultural Department
of the UNION AND AMERICAN, and
having confidence in your knowledge
of agriculture, / tax t'ie liberty of
asking your advice about sowing or
chard grass seed. / have considerable
land sowed in wheat, say $50 acres, and
am anxious to seed it in clover and or
chard grass: l. VIII you state whether
it will do to SOW it land at what time,
on wheat sown this fall? 2. State how
/ should prepare the soil, should it be
narrowed, THAT is the wheat and then
SOW the seed? would the ground have to
be narrowed after the seed are sown to
put them in? Have you ever had any
experience in sowing orchard grass seed
with grain? If so, what kind? The
land that wish to SOW is good, strong
land, but needs rest or rotation. The
land is level, or nearly SO, upland. I
have bought the seed and am prepared
| to put on a liberal amount of clover
and orchard grass seed to the acre.
How would it do to SOW early next fall,
after the wheat is cut and taken off the
ground, say in August or September?
would the land have to be plowed again,
or would it do to harrow the seed In?
The land this year has been in cotton,
therefore the cultivation has been close
and the ground loose and clean and
clear of grass and weeds. If / can,
would prefer sowing on the soheat, as l
will have time to put it in better.
What month do you prefer to SOW clo-
yer seed in?
[ don't wish my name in print, but
expect it would be valuable
information to many farmers if your
ideas were given to the public on this
subject. will be under many obliga-
lions if you can find time to comply
with my request. 80
ANSWER TO THE ABOVE LETTER.
So far as we may be able, it will at
all times give us pleasure to answer
through these columns such letters as
the above. 1t is a sound and profta-
bic rotation to go from cotton to wheat,
and from wheat to clover and orchard
grass, Your ground needs no tillage
of any kind before or after sowing
clover and grass seed. If you could be
sure that the freezing of the young
clover and grass plants soon after the
seeds terminate would not kill them,
the seeds had better be sown at once.
Long experience has established the
wisdom of sowing clover in February
in our cotton climate, and in March
farther north. Probably the last ten
days in February will be the surest
time to obtain a good catch and stand
of both clover and grass. Itwould be a
mistaketO delay seeding your wheat field
till next August or September Many
a weedwould grow andripen its scotland
scatter the same far and near over the
ground. These weeds are a pest, and
very far from being a first-rate substi-
tute for clover and orchard grass pas
ture or meadow. We like nice green
blue grass, orchard grass, at-grass,
herds-grass, timothy, fescue and clover
for winter grazing so much better than
a field of old dry weeds, that we have
sOwn as experiments the seeds of these
grasses every month in the year. Our
experiment on Col. Burch's place, near
this city, was failure seed sown in
November. Freezing killed the very
tender young plants. This does not al
ways happen, as European grasses, in
Guiding clover, are very hardy plants.
They may be found growing in Siberia
where the earth thdaos only three feet
in summer, and below that is frozen
sixty feet the year round. The greatest
misfortune that has ever happened
to the European race in the
Southern States is their forgetting
the value of the white mans grasses in
all tillage and husbandry, and in all
permanent civilization. Civilization
can no more grow and prosper with a
deteriOrating soil and starvation IN the
future than snow and ice can be formed
without water. Most people know that
the distance from ice to water in hot
day, and from water back to ice in a
cold day, is not far; yet, strange to say,
the distance attained in the study of
the European grasses, which form the
| groundwork of the white man S mus
cles, bones, brain and nerves, is still
less. This is proved by the fact that
Tennessee, with some twenty nine mil
lion five hundred thousand acres of
land, on most of which the best Euro
pean grasses will grow, contains proba-
bly, not one hundred thousand acres
well seeded, from which weeds are pro-
perly exterminated. In one sense,
weeds are recuperative and valuable.
So are sand, clay and iron valuable;
but is pound of either worth as much
as pound of gold? If dry, dead weeds
made first rate hay and winter pasture,
the case would be entirely different.
But who is able to gather figs from this
ties, or pears and apples from old field
pines? 1t is not less our duty than
our privilege, as farmers, to make war
on all inferior plants, and substitute
such as are of infinitely greater value
to mankind. Hence, the owner of
Woodlawn Farm is setting good ex-
ample in striking bravely for $50 acres
of orchard grass and clover, in place of
weeds, nakedness and guIlies. This pen
always has a kind, encouraging word
for those who see the propriety of MAX
ing all farming and planting lands do
their best in the way of permanent
profit. A temporary gain purchased by
a lasting sacrifice is bad husbandry,
yet not uncommon. God gives us vast
and invaluable grazing and fertilizing
resources. What is done with them |?
HINTS FOR THE SEASON.