The Osceola times., 1875-10-23

LIME FOR GRASS AND THE SMALL GRAINS.
A dressing of lime on land to be sown
with wheat, oats or clover and the grasses,
is, in a majority of cases, one of the most
rcmgneratiye applications that can he
madr, provided lime can he procured at
reasonably low rates. Ii is not merely as
plant-food that lime is useful. II is still
more important as a preparer of plant
food. Its reaction with the acids Of the
soil, its strong action upon decaying veg
etable matter, and its faculty Of convert
ing clay into mud, and rendering it me-
cbanically fit for culture, are some of its
more obvious uses, and As general rule,
it may be assumed that the land whichis
the richest in vegetable substances will
benefit most by the free use of lime, and
gravelly sand the least II is an open
question how much, or rather how little,
lime may be protitably applied per acre.
The English farmers use lime heavily,
putting ON their fields ut the rate of from
seventy-five to one hundred bushels per
acre, and make one application do for a
number of years Lighter dressings made
yearly do better here-say from five to
twenty bushels, depending upon the
amount of vegetable matter in the soil
and its acidity. Our Charleston mari
lime, or calcined mari, is better than the
ordinary stone lime.
WHAT EVERYBODY KNows-oF COURSE.
II it is worth while to make cotton at
all, as we all believe-showing our faith
| by our works-it is surely worth while to
save it all in the best possible condition,
when made yet there is always culpa-
bic neglect among planters in this partic-
ular- neglect to pick at the proper time I;
slovenly work in picking which allows
much of the lint TO go to waste a lack
of care in asserting the different quail
ties, 80 that much lint of the highest
grade must he sold at the price of the
lowest, simply because some portion Of
the latter has been mixed with it, bad
ginning, reducing good cotton to the
market value Of an inferior quality, and
so on. This should not be tolerated
Does not every intelligent planter know
that-the original quality being the same
clean, well ginned, cotton commands
in market from one and half to two
cents more per pound than trashy cot
tonY OF course, everybody knows ;
nevertheless, immense quantities of
trashy cotton find their way TO market,
and these words OF caution are not re-
peated without reason.
SOWING GRASS AND CLOVER WITH GRAIN.
One great cause Of failure with grass in
the south has been the seeding of the
crop with the small grains. This is a
I a,.tt 4 tn md
were formerly inclined to favor it, but
later experiments force us TO the conclu-
sion that in our climate Mt least, the
practice is bad one, and that it is fan
more profitable to SOW each by itself. II
sown Immediately, (whcn not already I'M
grass and clover will, on suitable soil
attain such growth before the hot
weather of next season sets in, as will in
sure them against injury, without the
shade of the grain, which will he injured
by the clover and grass, while injuring
them in return. In any case, the land
for clover and the grasses should be rich
and thoroughly prepared by deep, close
ploughing, followed by narrowing, pre-
vious to which good dressing of super
phosphate may be applied with advan-
tage. Brush lightly TO cover and, cx-
eept on heavy soils, by all means roll the
fields with a tolerably heavy roller. This
last is an important and too generally
neglected process lfy you are to SOW both
clover and the grasses on the same field,
it is best to sow the clover by itself, as
the seed does not mix well with the grass
seed. The various kinds of grass seed
may be mixed before sowing,-Rwat
Cmolinidn.