News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-09-28
FARM AND GARDEN.
Every Day Thoughts About Every
Day Work by a Young Farmer.

| VIII you be kind enough In your
next contribution to the Boston Jour
nal to say something about laying down
sward land to grass in September ? My
grass holds out from four to six years
when seeded down with barnyard ma
nure, but there is not enough of it.
How will phosphate of lime answer,
and how many pounds 10 the acre !?
Will it be paying operation p
am glad to comply with the request,
as am thorough believer in the profit
OF breaking up in August or September
such sward land as has been shown by
the present summers hay crop to be
run out from any cause, whether it is
owing to the ravages of the worm, the
dry weather or the exhaustion of the
plant food necessary to grow prof table
crops of hay.
With the many excellent plows that
we have in market now, which will turn
piece of sod land over handsomely in
the hands of an ordinary good plowman;
with the disk or wheel harrows, and
other harrows that are capable of max
ing even tough sod into a seed bed as
mellow as if it had been cultivated one
or two years, and with the ease of OBJ
tanning and applying 'superphosphates
or other chemical fertilizers, the farmer
can restore such fields to a fertile and
profitable condition, without being linn
tied in his operations by the number of
acres thatit is convenient for him to plant
and cultivate, or the amount of manure
that he has in his barnyard.
Theoretically, believe in regular
rotation of crops and cultivation of
the land with roots and grain two or
three years before putting in grass, and
then cutting grass for four or six years
before breaking up again.
Practically, it cannot always be fol-
lowed. When the grass field cannot be
conveniently managed in hoed crops;
when the field that should have cut
grass for six years ceases to be profitable
at the end of three; when the breaking
up for cultivation all thoss fields which
really need it will leave the farmer with
out sufficient moving land to furnish
the hay for his stcck-then it becomes
necessary to abandon rotation theories
and provide for the demands OF the
present.
How will phosphate of lime answer"
you ask. am willing to acknowledge
what my venerable friend, the old fash.
Toned farmer, will assert, that "phos-
phate docs not last in the land like good
stable manure" will go farther and
say that think there is nothing better
for seeding down land than good coat
ing of well rotted stable manure that
can be finely pulverized and thoroughly
mixed with the soil.
But when, as you say, there is not
enough of it" you can use good phos-
phste or chemical fertilizer, and it will
give your seed a good catch and your
crop q good start for the first season,
which is Of the greatest Importance in
reseeding grass land.
1t may be that the natural fertility of
the soil, assisted by the decomposition
of the turf that you pillow under, will be
sufficient then to give you good crops
for nearly as long as you say your land
now holds out. If it does not, you can
remember the phosphate has cost you
but about one-quarter as much in seed
ing the land as it would have cost you
to purchase good manure for that pur-
pose, and top-dressing of the phos-
phate in the spring will carry it along
for year or two more, and even then
you have not expended as much as you
would have expended if you had bought
manure.
Artificial fertilizers, if you get those
that are good and prepared by reliable
manufacturers, will compare with stable
manure about as the nimble sixpence
compares with the slow shilling.
AS regards the number of pounds to
be used per acre, I think most of the
manufacturers who claim to make high
grade of goods recommend using four
or five hundred pounds per acre. If
this does not cost as much as you wish
to expend upon your land you might
add to it an equal or a larger amount of
fine ground bone. This probably would
be more lasting in its effects than the
phosphate. The only trouble with bone
seems to be that in some soils, and most
frequently in light sandy or gravelly
soils, the bone is so lasting that the
farmer doubts whether the benefit from
its use is not destined to reveal itself to
future generations rather than to him.
"Wil it pay ?" With hay at the
prices which it brings in market to-day,
it will pay to expend some labor and
some money to increase the products of
your moving lands. 1t certainly does
not pay to allow them to remain in such
condition that they do not yield enough
to pay the labor of moving and curing
the hay and the interest and taxes on
the land, and if trifing outlay will
cause such land to produce two or three
tons of hay per acre it certainly will pay.
L am not sure but it would also pay to
break up some of our pasture lands and
treat them in the same way, though I
Like rather better the sowing of an
acre or two of winter rye in the pasture
each fall, putting in grass-seed at the
same time. This gives a good feed
early in the spring, and fields SO treated,
even where no manure or phosphate is
applied, will be much better for several
years. How much better they would be
treateds to the dose if / have recon-
mended for the moving lands I canno
say, not having tried it or seen it tried.
Think the objection to the use of phos-
plate or manure in re-seeding an old
pasture might be that it would so i'm
prove it that we should not feel as if we
could afford to pasture it, but would
harvest the rye, NOW the grass and
leave the pasture containing less num-
Der of acres than it did before.
New England farmers are not accus-
toned to turning their cattle into pas
lures where the clover stands knee
high, as they do in the Middle States,
and it would look extravaganza and
wasteful to them. Ii we were blessed
with such pastures we should be as bad
ly off as the chronic grumbler IN the
season of abundant harvests, when he