.

To accomplish this, the ground must be deeply plowed, taking care that it is also pulverized; after the ground is dried it should be scarified with a cultivator, and this operation must be repeated three or four times, at intervals of a week, so as to destroy all the weeds as they start, and if the soil is tenacious, it should be rolled before using it; it should then be harrowed with a sharp, fine toothed harrow, until every portion of the surface is reduced to a fine powder; it must then be suffered to lie until the appearance of the sky pretty clearly indicates the approach of rain, when the mixture of seeds should be evenly sown and covered with a bush harrow, (not a tooth harrow.) The time of sowing should be as nearly as possible to the period when the seeds ripen.

A very good preliminary operation is, to plow the ground in the spring, and sow it with buckwheat, which is to be carefully turned under when in blossom. This keeps the weeds under, its fermentation pulverizes the soil, and the decay of its vegetable matter furnishes a rich pabulum for the young grass. It will be said that this preparation is troublesome and expensive, so it is, but you cannot make seed take, especially on stiff soils, without it. I have been told by farmers, that they have succeeded in making their new seeding look as green the first fall as an old meadow with one-tenth of the labor that I have prescribed. So they have; but when I have examined the plants that constituted that greenness, I have found from nine-tenths to three-fourths of it to consist of worthless weeds. The problem is not how to make the newly seeded land speedily green, but how to fill it speedily with useful grass.

Before the seeds have germinated, the ground should be covered with a thin coating of rotten manure, when in a short time the young grass will make its appearance. Before the frosts set in, the ground should be covered with straw, which will prevent the radiation of heat from the earth, and will prevent that tearing of the rootlets from the roots which ensues from the alternate freezing and thawing of the ground, and which is well known to be exceedingly destructive to our best grasses. Such being the effect of the straw covering, it will be found to repay with usurious interest the cost and trouble of laying on. There is another cause for the failure of grass seeds to germinate, which is not generally understood, and to which I ought to call your attention, and this is the burying of seeds too deeply in the earth. Carefully repeated experiments made with every precaution against errors, show that

grass seeds should not be covered with more than an eighth of an inch of earth. A much smaller proportion of seeds germinate at a quarter of an inch deep, and they are nearly all destroyed at the depth of an inch. Mr. Sinclair, after recommending that the large seeds should be separated from the small ones of a mixture by a wire sieve, remarks as follows: "I have sown the seeds of the same grasses in every month of the year, January excepted, and though much depends on the weather and the state of the ground, the results were always in favor of the month of September and the beginning of August, and next to that the middle and latter end of May, according as the weather was dry. The seeds vegetated and grew with most vigor under the following circumstances: When the ground had been stirred, broken very fine, and made perfectly smooth and compact on the surface with a heavy roller previous to sowing the seeds, the ground in a dry state at the time of sowing,-the seed sown on this fine, dry compact surface, the larger seed not more than just covered by drawing a fine rake on the level surface, and afterwards sowing the small seeds and covering them no farther than what was effected by a repetition of the roller. The result further showed, that next to a coarse, unconsolidated or loose surface, the practice of deep sowing was in the second degree more injurious to the vegetation of the seeds and the first progress of the plants, than any other error that could be made in the manual part of the process of sowing the natural grasses on a soil of good quality." These facts show the impropriety of harrowing in grass seeds in the usual manner, since most of the seeds will in this way be buried beyond the possibility of germination.

Most farmers are accustomed to sow their grass seeds with some kind of grain, and many defend the practice on principle, but I think the preponderance of evidence is clearly and unequivocally on the side of those who advocate separate sowing. The practical results have almost invariably been in favor of this method when it has properly been done, and theoretical considerations would most certainly lead to this practice. The grain crop abstracts from the soil a large portion of the nutriment which is needed exclusively by the young grass. Every plant of grain occupies a place to the detriment of the expected sward, much injury is done by the lodging of the grain when beaten down by heavy rains. The young plants are repressed in the spring by the shade of the grain when they most need the genial influence of

the sun, and then when the grain is cut it is exposed in its weakened state to its fiercest summer glare, at a period when it is more exposed to drought than at any other season of the year. This perfect coincidence between the teachings of science and the results of practical experience, fully justify me in the opinion I have just given, that grass seeds in most cases should be sown by themselves. Another cause of the failure of grass seeds to germinate, is the damaged condition in which they are received from the seedsman. It must be borne in mind that different species of grass vary greatly in their ability to form good seed, a large proportion of the most carefully secured crops proving abortive; thus, orchard grass is very apt to prove defective, perennial red clover has frequently abortive seeds, and the seed of the meadow fox-tail is, as a general rule, so bad that only one seed out of three will germinate. To guard against these unavoidable defects, as well as against the impositions sometimes practiced by unprincipled seedmen, they should be thoroughly tested before purchasing, in the following manner, for which I am indebted to Mr. Flint's valuable Work on Grasses, (p. 142.) "Take two pieces of thick cloth, moisten them with water, and place them one upon the other at the bottom of a saucer; place any number of seeds which it is designed to try upon the cloth, spreading so thin as not to allow them to cover or touch each other. Cover them over with a third piece of cloth, similar to the other, and moisten in the same manner. Then place the saucer in a moderately warm place. Sufficient water must be turned on from time to time to keep the three thicknesses of cloth moist; but great care must be taken not to use too much water, as this would destroy the seed. There should be only enough to moisten the cloths, and not enough to stand in the saucer. Danger from this source may be avoided in a great measure by tipping the saucer so as to permit any superfluous water in it to drain off. The cloth used for covering may be gently raised each day to watch the progress of the swelling or the moulding of the seed. The good seed will be found to swell gradually, while the old or poor seed which has lost its germinating power, will become mouldy in a very few days. In this way, also, any one can judge whether old is mixed with new seed, since the latter germinates much more quickly than the former. He can judge besides of the quantity he must sow, since he can tell whether one-half or threefourths, or the whole, will be likely to germinate, and regulate his sowing accordingly. The seeds of clover, if new and fresh,

will show their germs on the third or fourth day-other seeds will take a little longer, but till they become coated with mould, there is hope of their germination. As soon as the mould appears it is decisive, and the seed that moulds is worthless." This plan is so easy, and the injury arising from the sowing of defective seeds is so great, that it ought never to be omitted by any farmer who wishes to seed even a single acre of land.

Having now got our young grass successfully started, the next object is to provide for its future welfare, and our first inquiry with this view must be to ascertain whether there is any stagnant water in the soil. It is settled beyond all cavil by the united testimony of both science and experience that the true meadow grasses (such as are included in our fifth class) will not flourish in the presence of stagnant water. Sow as many seeds and put on as much manure as you will, they will all be lost. Nothing but the aquatic grasses will flourish on a soil where water stands. Wherever these aquatic grasses are seen there is but one thing to do and that is to underdrain. It is not necessary to drain meadows so thoroughly as plow lands, for nearly all the grasses require moist soils, but if you would have a profitable meadow or pasture you must free it from stagnant water. Good husbandry requires that grass should be well started, and that provision should be made for its future growth and increase; yet this necessity is overlooked by nineteen-twentieths of our farmers. There are hundreds of thousands of acres of meadows which have never had manure applied to them for a century nor have they been the subjects of any ameliorating process whatever; their annual burden of grass has been removed, and this is all the care their owners have bestowed upon them. This ought not so to be. Depend upon it there is a Nemesis that watches over agriculture as well as human conduct, and every fraud the farmer practices on his lands will assuredly be visited on his pocket. The necessity for the application of nourishing manures is clearly shown by the amount of matters removed from the soil by every successive crop. Each ton of hay of average quality removes 140 lbs. of mineral matter from the soil, and 26 lbs. of nitrogen equivalent to 31 lbs. of ammonia. The mineral matter includes 34 lbs. of potash, 15 lbs. of lime, 8 lbs. of phosphoric acid, besides other ingredients.

When we consider the immense loss of fertilizing materials which ensues from a removal of successive crops, and that the soil is not annually stirred up and brought into contact with the atmosphere,

which is the main source of the supply of nitrogen, as is the case with grain lands, which are in additition receiving the manure of the farm; every farmer ought to desist from the wasteful and heedless practice which they have hitherto followed, and adopt a system in the future more in accordance with the teachings of nature, as interpreted by science and confirmed by practice. They may do so with the full assurance that it will increase both the quantity and quality of their crops, and greatly augment their pecuniary returns. Grass lands laid down in the fall in the manner I have described will generally give a fair crop of hay the ensuing summer; but the season after this is the most trying year for the young meadow. Many of the young plants are found to have died out, and their places are supplied by noxious weeds, while the good plants that are alive look feeble and sickly. This is caused by the solid packing of the earth around the roots of the grass-they can hardly penetrate into the hard soil, nor can the air readily find access to them; the worms have not yet been attracted in sufficient numbers to make a proper mould, or to fill the soil with air galleries, nor have successive crops yielded their debris to the soil. In this condition, the food which the plant cannot find below must be supplied to it from above. Early in the second spring, if we cannot obtain a supply of well rotted barn-yard manure, which after all, is the best thing, we may mix together two parts of Peruvian guano, one part of Plaster of Paris, and one part of wood ashes, and apply the mixture to the meadow at the rate of 400 lbs. to the acre, which will be found to invigorate the meadow and repress the growth of weeds; and what is of almost equal importance, it will increase the activity of the worms. A very considerable difference of opinion exists amongst farmers with regard to the disposition of the first crop of grass from a newly seeded meadow. Some maintain that it should be pastured the first year by small stock, such as sheep and calves, in order that the land might obtain the benefit of their widely diffused droppings; but so far as my own observation and experience go, I am decidedly of opinion that it should be mowed and not pastured, for the young grass has not yet become firmly rooted, and much of it will be torn out by the roots by the sheep and cattle, leaving vacancies for the weeds to find lodgment, while the uniform action of the scythe over the surface causes the grass to tiller, and the sward is invariably thicker and finer. You will always find in your pastures, that the cattle will manifest a prc