The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-10-23
THE FARM AND HOME.
A GENERAL NEED OF BETTER
GRASS-LANDS.
No Better Fertilizer than Grass-Banish
Rats from Buildings and Cellars
Sheep Notes and Poultry
Pfclkings.
Better Grass Lands.

There is need of better grass lands
in nearly every section. The demand
for good hay is never lessened when
it is properly cured from good grass.
But the basis of all good hay is SUPER
ior grass. Our grass lands are gem
orally neglected more than any other
crop. and yet they are as profitable as
three-fourths of the farm crops. Moth
ing responds to good care so readily
as grass, and nothing increases the
fertility of the soil so thoroughly as
clover and orchard grass.
1t is not sufficient to say that clover
is the sure sign that the soil is being
renovated for many lands cannot well
secure a good clover catch, but it is
more to the point to say that the farm
which has fine. rich, luxuriart grass
growing on it is in good condition,
and that its fertility is increasing every
year: Most of our soils are suffering
from lack of vegetable material in
them. Commercial fertilizers have
ruined many by keeping from them
the particular plant food which nature
supplies. Muck. composted barnyard
manure and even leaf-mold, may to a
certain extent supply the soil with the
lacking ingredients; but no artificial
application of this nature can wholly
make up for the loss of the annual
crops of vegetables which nature turns
in to the soil to enrich it.
Grass is about the only crop, that
gives more to the soil than it takes
from it. Good timothy leaves enough
stubble and second growth to greatly
enrich the soil and make a good foun-
dation for other crops. Orchard
grass after the first crop is cut fur
nishes "a second crop rich enough to
equal many loads of manure if turned
under at the right time. Blue grass
is no less important. The roots of
these grasses are often as valuable as
the stalk above the ground.
But grass is important as paying
crop besides fertilizing the soil. When
ever hay can be easily sent to market
it can command prices sufficient to pay
good profit to the acre. Transpor-
tation rates alone makes this crop
losing one. But grades in hay are
rapidly making good stands of grass
an important question. It is no longer
simply necessary to trust to luck in
growing the grass. The cultivation
of the soil before sowing, and the
seeding should all be attended to as
carefully as if preparing for wheat.
Not little of the poor hay crops are
due to the tact that little or no atten-
ton has been paid to the seeding of
the grass:
One of the greatest injuries to our
grass lands is the practice of turning
cattle on the second growth of grass
during hot weather. The plants are
partly killed by the cutting, and if
hot weather follows it is hard work
for the young plants to spring up. If
these are trampled down mercilessly
by the hoofs of cattle the roots are
killed and the whole field destroyed.
Cold weather comes on and the roots
are effectively killed. Care should be
taken to let the grass get good start
in the fall before cold weather is
here, and if it is necessary to turn
cattle on do not let them crop it close
~ in places. 1t is better to keep them
off in dry weather and also late in
the fall. "A. B. Barrett in the Amer
lean Cultivator.