The Bossier banner., 1884-07-03
Seeding to Grass.

1t has been thought that our climate
is unfaYorable to grass. This idea has
prevailed so long that it has come to be
a firmly established belief. But like
some other popular beliefs it is utterly
baseless. The truth is we have never
tried to grow grass. We have some
timothy and clover as hay crop, but
SO far as seeding down meadow with
grasses, it has not yet been done, ex-
cepting by nature, and q few farmers
who have learned lesson by observing
natural effects. The American climate
is especially favorable to grass. Ii we
want q proof let US first look at our
roadsides, where, as we have personally
found, any observer may find a dozen
varieties growing permanently in spite
of every unfavorable circumstances, as
want of fertility, dry weather, tramp
ling, and weeds. In West Virginia,
Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Missouri,
we may find natural meadows of blue
grass which equals the noted English
permanent grass-lands, and which are
now century old and as yet show no
signs of failure. Further West the
boundless prairie has been covered with
perennial verdure, and still further
millions of cattle range over our vast
pastures, which have borne grasses of
the most nutritious kinds for no one
knows how many centuries or tens of
centuries. Interspersed among the
mountains beyond the plains are seas
of verdure in the picturesque parks and
smaller valleys equally ancient, and
which have been green since the
ancient days when the soil was first
formed for the cooled rocks which
came from the bowels of the earth,
vomited amid fire and earthquake. So
that it cannot be the climate but our
want of the necessary skill which pre-
vents us from growing grass upon our
fields.
The great trouble in the way is, we
do not choose the right kinds, and we
do net SOW grass. We SOW grain and
put in grass, and expect crop of both.
This is against all reason and rule. If
we 10 ok at the grass upon the roadsides
we may learn lesson that may help
us. We shall find the grass covering
the ground so closely that the soil can
not be seen. We shall find several
varieties growing intermingled to-
gether, one maturing early and others
later all through the season. Even at
this early period we may find the first
grass to blossom, P0G a71rsuG ready to
flower if not already blooming. Then
follows sweet vernal grass, the sweetly
odOrous breath of the vernal spring ex-
haling from its foliage. Then come
the June grasses, PoG prate1asts and PoG
compresSd, with their early herbage,
and the fescues of several species; sew
eral kinds of agrostis; another useful
Poa, the common fowl meadow grass,
Poa serottna. and others following in
succession, with the not-to-be-forgotten
white clover crowding in among them
for the place and living which nature
owes it, but which it will have whether
or no. Do we farmers grow grasses in
this way? On the contrary, we try
precisely the opposite course, and sow
one grass and give that no kind OF a
chance.
But we are gradually learning better.
Some of US have tried the reasonable
way and have met with success.
Farmers are now learning to SOW even
the common timothy and clover and
treat it as crop, that is, to prepare
the ground well, as if for a crop of
grain, and SOW the seed alone and so
thickly that the ground will be fully
occupied. Others are mixing several
kinds, and so precisely following the
example of nature, and the more of
this that is done the more the example
is followed. We cannot dispense with
grass. 1t is becoming more and more
Indispensable to us every year, and by
and by we shall find the reason why we
have not succeeded earlier has been be-
cause we have been laundering. Mixed
grasses, perfect preparation of the soil.
liberal seeding, and sowing without any
robber crop to destroy it. win give US
excellent grass fields. Then we must
learn to use these grass fields well, feed
them generously. and they will be lib
eEallY responsive. M Z. linsss,