The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-05-08

TREATMENT OF GRASS.

u
ion Of opinion among farmers, that
land once laid down will do better to
be kept in grass and will continue to
improve and thicken up. In England,
also, it is often maintained that grass
land does better not to be broken up
and reseeded, that the grass upon old
fields is more abundant and more nu-
tritive than upon newly seeded lands,
and hence there seems to be a DISPOSE
ton to keep such lands in condition
without breaking up, by top dressing
and other means of renovation. Let
us look at it little.
Circumstances and soils differ so
much that even if it were true, here
and there, that grass lands do better
TO remain as they are, it would hard
t1y do to lay it down as a rule of uni
versal application. 1t is probably
true, that with our imperfect modes
Of seeding, the use of so few of the
many varieties that are naturally
to be found in an old field, the turf
will thicken up by the growth of
many grasses that come into the soil,
in the course of time. This will for
some years continue to increase the
yield, so that the field will appear to
be growing better after it is laid
down, especially if the soil is strong
and good, or naturally suited to grass.
But this increase must have its limit,
eV en- in the best of soils, without the
1udh2ious application of manure. The
profita BILE growth and constantremov-
al of gra IS and hay will lead to de-
pletion Of the soil as true as the laws
of nature are fixed and immutable.
But large porhon of our soils are
not especially adapted 10 grass. Good
crops are grown upon them with con-
Istant and increasing difficulty and
labor, and though the liberal applica-
ton of manure may keep them pro-
ductive for time, they soon begin
90 "bind out" as we say. The soil
will get filed up and crowded with
the roots of twitch or couch grass, or
toher Objectionable permanent
growth. We see instances Of this
every year on our lighter and poorer
soils, especially where they are not
often and literally top dressed, and
this on most farms is practically i'm
possible, or at least so difficult and
expensive that it is not often done.
On Oh. dryer upland knobs and plains
the drOughtS of summer or the for
nation and continuance Of ice upon
them in winter, will kill out many of
the better grasses, IN spite Of all we
can do, and it would be unreasonable
to expectsuch lands to continue to
improve indefinitely. In fact the crop
Will and does deteriorate,i in the course
of time, and grow less and less.
We find, therefore, that so far from
leaving such lands in permanent
grass, there is growing inclination
TO subject them to some cultivation,
even more frequent than was formerly
practiced, somthrng that may be call
ed the annual forage crop system, by
which the whole farm, or rather all
the grass land of the farm, is put un-
der the plow as often as once IN three
or four years. Indeed, we know
farmers, whose whole tilage land has
been under the plow within three
years, and who have settled down
upon this as the most profitable sys-
TEN for them to pursue. especially
since our season of terrible drought
and our hard open winters, have seri,
ously affected all our grass lands as
to reduce their supplies for winter
feeding.
The process is to plough up, deeply
and thoroughly early in tire fall lei