The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-01-26
concluded from First Page. !

portance that they are crops worthy of as
good treatment as any of the hoed crops.
In my own practice / find it pays to make
a specially of growing grass instead of giving
it a second or third position in the rotation.
Instead of ploughing up a rundown field
and then cropping it a year or two before
seeding, | find it equally sure and much
more profitable to prepare the land as for
other crops, and then seed down to grass
alone. If grass land is turned over after
haying and re-seeded early in the fall, full
crop may be cut the following summers but
in raising grass in this way it is essential
that the work should all be done in the very
best manner. We must, by thorough cul-
tivation, in a few weeks time do what ma
ture does in one or more years, that is, we
must make deep, fine mellow seed bed
and mingle the fertilizers very thoroughly
through the soil and have them in such
condition that the young grass can obtain
from them immediate benefit.
The first requisite to this end is good
ploughng, for unless this is thoroughly
done all the after cultivation will be imper-
feet and the success but partial.
use swivel ploughs, wholly, that | may
have the fewest possible number of first and
last burrows, which can never be turned
quite as well as the others.
The depth of the burrows must be such
that good seed bed may be made on the
inverted side without danger of turning
them back. The deeper and wider the fur
rows, the more likely they are to remain
grass side down during the subsequent cul
tivation.
The first implement that follows the
plough is a harrow, with teeth or cutters so
shaped that they will cut skive and pulver-
ize the soil without catching and turning
bap tl,a IN hn st,ik hnr.
rows or common cultivators in general use.
There arc several kinds of harrows that
will pulverize the soil perfectly, without
tearing up the turf, and they are absolutely
indispensable for preparing newly turn d
sward land for seeding After field has
been worked ever several times with the
Shares, or similar harrow, | have some
times found it advisable to go over it with
common cultivator, to loosen the soil
little deeper. and to more thoroughly mix
the manure witt the soil than l could with
the Shares harrow. But unless the first
ploughing was deep and perfectly well done
the cultivator should not be used. To Sc
cure the best results from fall seeding
ground should be ploughed imme iiately af
ter the hay crop is removed, that the turf
may have as much time as possible for rot
ting, an | the top soil have some time to lie
exposed to tie weather between each har-
rowing-for two borrowings, a week apart,
are much better for mixing manure, or for
pulverizing the soil, than if made on the
same day, especially if the ground ieccive
shower during the interval.
If heavy coat of coarse manure is to be
applied, it shonld be spread soon after the
first narrowing, that it may have the ben
eft of all the subsequent cultivation; but if
only light dressing of fine manure or ar.
n;,1 -, - ,l,, 10,
spread evenly on the surface, and narrowed
or pushed In lightly with the seed, and left
where the roots of the young grace plants
can reach it at once.
believe there is no place where the COM
mon farmer can use good commercial fer
tlizers with less risk of failure than on land
to be seeded with grass. The failures so
often caused by placngltoo great a quantity
of concentrated fertilizers near the roots of
young plants, are easily avoided by using
in this way, while at the same time every
plant will be benefited at the start if tine
fertilizer is worked evenly into the soil.
1t requires little more labor to prepare
1seed bed upon inverted sod than on
old cultivated field, but if the right kind of
tools are selected, and they are properly
used, quite as good crops of grass may be
grown in this way as after hoed crops.
Owing to the effects of extreme droughts,
or to the depredations of the larva OF the
dor-beetle. l have occasionally fonnd it
desirable to re-seed larger breadth of
sward land than / had sufficient manure for,
or time to attend to early in the fall. Most
farmers would plant such land with some
hoed crop before seeding. but l claim the
privilege of growing grass, and nothing
else, so long as grass is needed above all
other crops to meet my special wants.
Several years ago had field ploughed
q in the fall for planting the following spring.
On one side was level strip of lowland,
which had been well turned by the plough
and which was not needed for planting.
MANFRED the field all alike, and worked it
down smooth and fine. After it was ready
to plant, l asked myself why piece of
green sward can not be made to produce
grass just as we'll sown in spring as old
ground, provided it is rich and mellow :?
Thinking, perhaps, l should never know
without trying it, decided to seed this
strip to grass alone, and the experiment
was so entirely successful, that l have new
er since hesitated to sow grass on green
sward in spring, whenever, from any cause,
it seemed desirable to do so.
l do not claim that this is the best way to
re-seed, but that, under certain circum-
stances, it is good way. If / were IN
4
plough early in the fall, apply the manure
at any convenient time, and go over the
ground with a harrow or cultivator about
every ten days or two weeks as long as il
remained unfrozen.
Itwould then be fine, mellow, and some
what rotten, and after one or two good har-
rowngs in the spring would be in good con-
dition to receive the seed. In this way no
crop is lost. have one field of moist mead
ow land that has been treated in this way
for several years. never cutting less than
two crops year, and usually three.
If haste were ofless Importance than per-
feet work, should say that the very bes,
method of re seeding grass land without
planting would be to plough after haying
keep the ground narrowed during the fal
and spring, and then, after manuring it.
seed in August. / would lose crop in this
way, but the land would produce full crops
for several years afterwards. l have fol
lowed this course in tine renovation of ole
pastures with no drawback, except that pas
lures treated in this way are apt to come
out mowings instead of pastures. One fiel,
treated in this way and sowed about thu
goth of July, required moving the frs
year. Sown thus early it would be be ta
to mix round turnip seed with the grass ant
thus get valuable crop of roots with yer,
little cost and little or no injury to the grass
In this way there would be no loss of
crop. Although the early fall is the bes
time for sowing all kinds of grass, fine
that if | wish to SOW in both fall and spring
there is a choice in the varieties to be sowr
at each period.
Timothy is one of the poorest kinds o
grass for spring seeding without grain, AM
orchard grass one of the best. The former
like the onion, is dubious rooted and cal