Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-12-11
MOSS BACKED PASTURE.



BE Toned Up.
"How to tone up moss backed stony
pasture, was the subject of letters
from several progressive men to Rural
New Yorker. c. NJ. Clark, writing from
Connecticut, advised stirring the moss
up. He uses for this purpose steel
frame, reversible. cutaway harrow, with
special heavy disks feet long, which
can be handled by two horses. With
that machine he entirely destroys the
moss and secures a new growth of such
grass as he may desire to plant He has
found it useless to put commercial fer
tilizers on tEis class of land without Gull
tivation. He says that it will pay, how.
ever, to use yard manure or commercial
fertilizers and use them literally, and
it pays to clear the land from rocks.
H. j. Wheeler, Rhode Island station,
advises breaking up the land and giving
it a good dressing with lime, supple.
mented with potash, phosphoric acid
and nitrogen. That is what has been
done on several acres of the experiment
station farm at Kingston on light, sandy
loan. On heavier, clayey piece of land,
which was practically a bed of moss, by
the use of lime a magnificent crop of
beets has been grown, where without
it it was impossible to grow them, and
the land where the clover was sown in
the spring is perfectly covered with as
fine a stand as one could wish to see.
Upon the plot beside it, which received
the same treatmpnt-that is the same
cultivation and manuring with potash.
phosphoric acid and nitrogen-with the
exception of the lime, the moss came in
abundantly, and the clover gradually
turned yellow and disappeared. The ex-
perimenter may be frightened at the first
cost of lime and phosphoric acid, but the
writer believes that after the first year
the amount # fertilizer required TO keep
the soil in condition will probably be
very small, so that in the course of the
first eight or ten years the net cost for
the entire time will not be so great as
to preclude profit, provided there be
moisture enough to support the grass
crop.
Professor ]. P. Roberts of Cornell sta
ton, n. Y. advises 20 to 40 bushels of
properly slaked lime applied early in
the spring and l pound of white clover,
1 of red clover and IL to Is pounds of
timothy seed per acre. In addition ap-
ply 100 to 100 pounds of nitrate of soda
per acre. With a common spike tooth
harrow scarify the ground until the sur
face is thoroughly broken up aud the soil
aerated; then roll. Unless the land be
extremely dry and the plants fail for
want of moisture, this treatment should
result in covering the land i'll the course
of one or two years with fairly good
sod.
From the StOrrs Connecticut station
G. S. Phelps advises, in case blowing
and cultivating is not desired, as follows ::
Use 400 or 500 pounds of fine ground
raw or steamed bone and 500 or 600
pounds per acre of air slaked lime, both
to be applied this fall. AS early in the
spring as the snow is gone from the field
sow at the rate per acre of : pounds of
red clover, . pounds Of cleaned small
redtop (Rhode Island Bent) and 10
pounds of Kentucky blue grass If the
soil be moist at the time and immcdi-
ately after sowing the seed, a considera
BILE part of it will grow, even though no
effort be made to incorporate it with the
soil.