St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1891-06-27
POINTERS FOR THE FARMER,
INTERESTING READING FOR AG-
1lCULTURAL READERS.
Grassas for Pasture and Orchard.
Mule or Horse Colts--Break-
ing constitutional De-
fects--Farm Notes.

Grasses for Pasture and Orchard.
One of the most successful of wide
awake farmers in the United States
has recorded his opinion, based on
twenty years experience, that m'1-
ture, of which orchard grass is the
leading feature, is far i'll advance OF
the ordinary timothy and clover mix
ture. Orchard grass possesses the
great advantage over timothy that it
is ready to cut at least three weeks
earlier. And this meaps two things:
l, That it can be cut before that de-
| testable weed, the ox-eye daisy, has
gone to seed; 2, that the early cutting
allows the growth of n heavy after
math, such as can never be produced
by the later maturing timothy. And
added to these substantial advanta-
ges- either of which is sufficient OF it
self to Justify the encomiums passed
upon it's another of very great i'm
portance, namely, that q heavy seed
| ing of it, combined with other grasses,
on properly prepared land, will make
q meadow that can be moved for a
score of years, producing all that time
| third more weight OF hay annually
than the common method OF seeding.
Since timothy and clover mixtures re-
auire renewal every three or tour
years, the advantage in favor OF the
orchard grass mixture is enormous.
The following mixture, for cit her hay
| or permanent pasture, is highly rec
| commended: Orchard grass, meadow
foxtail, sheep fescue, Rhodt Island or
creeping bent, hard fescue, sweet
| sce.lted yernal, meadow fescuc, En-
elish rye-grass, Italian rye-grass, red
| top. One half of this should be orch
| ard grass, and If the best results are
to be obtained the quantity shown
| should be 80 large as fairly to take
, the ordinary farmers breath away,
| namely, fifty to seventy-five pounds
per acre, according to the richness OF
| the soil. To this should be added,
sown separately in the spring, ten
| pounds of red Or mammoth clover.
| If this seems a heavy outlay, 1t is to
he taken into the account, as an
eminent authority puts it, that five
acres treated by this method would
produce as much as twenty-five acres
| treated after the usual method.
Seeding down in this fashion Is high
farming" in the best sense. And that
kind Of farming is what the future will
demand. Getting two blades OF grass
to grow where one grew before is but
a step toward the grand result which
farmers must aim at if the agriculture
industry, on which all other industries
| depend, is to be profitable one in the
| coming time, not far away, when the
population of this country will be a
hundred millions, and the "straggle
for existence will besharpand urgent:
There is vast saving i'll labor and
cost in getting from five acres the same
quantity of any product as from
twenty-five, and the farmer who sue
ceeds in accomplishing it is the one
who will make farming pay.
| 1t is claimed for the orchard grass
mixture gwen above that it is more
nutritious, pound for pound, as 'sed
for cattle and sheep than timothy
hay. A careful observer found that
OH changing the feed of his COWS from
hay made from orchard grass, clover
and other mixed grasses, to timothy
hay of good quality, the tri-weekly
churning of butter fell offfrom twenty.
five pounds to seventeen pounds, and
no increase of grain food could be
safely given that would restore the
! loss.
Farmers would find it to their ad-
vantage to study carefully these ex'
periments of progressive, careful men.
and try for themselves, on q small
scale at first, "whether these things
are So" TO go on year after year for
a lifetime making lifelong blunder
through following the old ways, is
surely not the part of wise and prr,'
dent men. Rash experiments are not
advisable, of course. There are not
many farmers who can afford to take
great risks with new things. But
neither can farmers afford to neglect
well-attested improvements in farm,
ing methods. "The best" and only
that, sis good enough" for the Ameri
can farmer.