The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-09-05
Lands for Grass.

L y
Clay or heavy loam lands nre most
suitable for grass, and one well seeded
win improve and thicken up and bear
heavier crops for many years. and can
be kept in permanent grass providing
they are properly manured. for you can
not take off for successive years the
grass without returning manure in some
form to keep up tie fertility of the soil.
Yet how much moving land do we seq
reverting to pastures or ploweG up,
cultivated to potatoes and then corn. OF
+ to corn and then potatoes, and then re.
seeded to grass at great cost for seed
and labor to keep it in grass from three
to five years, and thea plowed again to
go through the same round Of opera
tons at much expense and compare
lively little return for the labor and
money for seed expended. Unless the
land was improperly laid down. and is
| too uneven to use the moving ma
chine. tedder and horse-rake, it should
not be plowed. but kept in grass by
top-dressing. and for this purpose arti-
fetal manures are better than compOsts
or barn manures. for the reason that
they will produce more for the same
money. and there is less expense in
their application. If compost or barn
manure is used, it must be worked over
and made fine; for, to use coarse ma
nure on moving land, would result in
reconveying to the barn with the hay
much that would not be decomposed
the first season, and would impair the
quality of the hay. Where lands are
light, grass can not be retained in the
vol that length of time: it can not lie
retained in heavier soils unless they are
naturally moist or can be irrigated.
If present moving land is too uneven
to work to advantage the present hay
ing implements, or for other reasons it
is DESTROYS to break it up and cultivate
it and then reseed it, in either case the
ground should be well cultivated and
put in cond ton by being literally man.
ured, and liberal manuring need not
cost over five dollars per acre; for two
tons hay will take from the soil only
seventeen pounds phosphoric acid and
sixty-nine pounds potash in mineral
elements TO be suppl ed, supposing that
neither of these was added TO the crop
from that already existing in the soil.
Land can be seeded to grass to adj
vantage in March, April. May, or, if
more convenient, in August, Septem-
Der. or October; in any case, however,
the ground should be well titled, made
fine, to have a good seed-bed, and we'll
MANFRED to give the grass the orpor-
tunity TO overcome the weeds. Ii the
land is not we'll titled and manfred the
weeds will overcome the grass. and this
is more likely to be the case where the
land has been deeply plowed and land
surned up which has not been exposed
for q length of time to the beneficial
action of the atmosphere to keep up its
store of available putritive matter. BY
exposure the slowly iusoluble silicates
slowly yield aikalies, lime and mag
nesia in soluble forms; the sulphides
are converted into sulphates; and, gen
erallv, the minerals of the soil are dis
integrated and mixed with the influence
Of the oxygen. the water, the carUonic
acid, and the nitric acid of the air.
Again, the atmospheric nitrogen is as
similable by the soil in the shape OF am
moni:., nitrates and the amide-like mat
tiers of humus.
The rate of disintegration, rs well rs
that of notification, depends in part
upon the chemical and physical char
acters of the soil, and partly upon the
temperature and meteorological condi-
lions.
Grass, on some accounts, is one OF
She best crops 10 raise, rs it is always
in demand, brings remunerative price
IN the market, and requires very little
labor, and uses horse power principally.
The use of labo saving machinery in
having enables the farmer to gather his
harvest in better season than formerly,
and experience shows that the best time
for cult ny is when the grass is in bios
som. as it then con aims the hig lest per-
centage of soluble matters, and early
cutting gives the second crop time to
grow. 1t can not be called good grass
land or well MANFRED thag will moi pro-
duce two good crops in a season.
Grass allowed to grow to seed before
being cut eNhausts the land to a much
greater extent than when cut in los
som, as it is in perfecting its seed that
the crop makes its greatest draft on
the soil, and by the time the seed is
formed the succulent nature OF the grass
has changed, and its soluble matters,
SUGAR, gum and star h. have been grad
uallv transformed into woody fiber. in
which state it does not possess the ma
tritive qualities that it does when cut in
blossom, and is consequently OF much
less value to feed the stock.
Light lands and those not adapted to
grass are better to cultivate in corn,
and by the system of ensilage, corn
makes good substitute for hay if fed
with grain, and with hay and ehsilage
there is no reason why The dairy inter-