Connecticut western news., 1882-09-13
FARM AND GARDEN.
Every Day Thoughts About Every
 Day Work by Young Farmer.

|
 "G. H. w." writes from the interior of Massachusetts as follows:
 < Will 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 8 paying operation ?"
 I 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 blows that we have in market now, which will turn piece of sod land over handsomely in the hands of an ordinary good p1owman; with the disk or wheel harrows, and 1 other harrows that are capable of mak- ing even tough sod into seed bed as mellow as if it had been cultivated one or two years, and with the ease of ob- taining and applying ''superphosphates or other hemical fertilizers, the farmer can restore such fields to fertile and profitable condition, without being Him. tied in his operations by the number of acres thatitis convenient for him to plant and cultivate, or the amount of manure that he has in his barnyard.
 Theoretically, I 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 hood 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 those fields which really need it will leave the farmer with out sufficient moving land to furnish the hay for his stock-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 does not last in the land like good stable. manure" I will go farther and say that I think there is nothing better for seeding down land than good coat, ing of we'll routed 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
 phate or chemical fertilizer, and it will
 give your seed good catch and youl
 crop a good start for the first season
 which is of the greatest importance ir reseeding grass land.
 It may be that the natural fertility o1
 the soil, assisted by the decomposition
 of the turf that you blow 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 tc
 be used per acre, think most of the manufacturers who claim to make high I or five hundred pounds per acre. Il :, this does not cost as much as you wisI
 to expend upon your land you might
 add to it an equal or larger amount o fine ground bone. This probably would be more lasting in it's 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 it's use is not destined to reveal itself to future generations rather than to him s,Will it pay ?" With hay at ths , prices which it brings in market to-day it will pay to expend some labor ant
 some money to increase the produ cts o your moving lands. It certainly doe not pay to allow them to remain in sucl
 condition that they do not yield enougl : to pay the labor of moving and curing
 the hay and the interest and taxes ol the land, and if 8 trifing outlay vii s cause such land to produce two or thre ! tons of hay per acre it certainly will pay
 I am not sure but it would also pay t 2 break up some of our pasture lands an'
 treat them in the same way, though :. I like rather better the sowing of a ;. acre or two of winter rye in the pasture n each fall, putting in grass-seed at tn same time. This gives 8 good fee
 early in the spring, and fields so treated
 even where no manure or phosphate i