We shall speak of the kinds and quality of seed, and of the time and
manner of putting them in.
We think our farmers err in not sowing enough kinds of seed together.
The objects to be secured are very early grass in the spring, a heavy
body of hay, a rapid after-growth, and the greatest amount which the
soil can yield. No one grass can be found capable of meeting all these
ends. Some are very early, but not heavy enough or sufficiently
nutritious for the main crop; others are admirable for hay, but do not
start readily again after cutting. By judiciously mixing different
sorts of grasses, any one of these objects may be secured and the
meadow be admirable both for the scythe and for pasturage. Nor can the
soil be made to yield all of which it is capable in any other way; for
a square foot of ground may be able to sustain but a certain number of
roots of any _one kind_ of grass, and yet many support, in addition,
as much more of another kind, since different species of grass draw
their nourishment from different portions of the soil—the
fibrous-rooted grasses from the surface, and tap-rooted plants from
the lower strata of the soil, while broad-leaved vegetation, as
clovers, lucerne, etc., draw very much of their support from the air.
Indeed, this is the lesson which Nature teaches us, for a dozen kinds
of grass may oftentimes be found growing wild on a single square foot.
The English farmer sows from four to seven or eight kinds of
grass-seed, and sometimes as high as twelve or fourteen, each one of
which is destined to answer some special end, and the whole taken
together constitute as it were, a perfect grass.
We subjoin the quantity and kind of seed per acre recommended by
English authorities, that our readers may have an idea of the English
method, and derive such benefit from it as their circumstances will
admit of:
Smooth-stalked poa, 8 quarts.
Rough-stalked poa, 8 “
Meadow fescue, 12 “
Meadow fox-tail, 8 “
Crested dog’s-tail, 6 “
Rib-grass, 4 “
Timothy-grass, 4 “
Yellow oat-grass, 4 “
Perennial rye-grass, 12 “
Cock’s foot, 4 “
Yarrow, 4 “
Sweet-scented vernal, 2 “
White clover, 6 lbs.
Cow-grass, 4 “
and annual meadow-grass.
These seeds may, for the most part, be had of eastern dealers, though
not probably in the West.
With blue grass we should join orchard grass, say a bushel to the
acre—white clover five pounds, red clover ten pounds, and
sweet-scented vernal (_anthoxanthum odoratum_) say three pounds.
This last grass is remarkably early in the spring, and peculiarly
fragrant; indeed, it is supposed that the famous spring butter of
Philadelphia derives its peculiar flavor from this grass, and we
should include it in every mixture to be sown for pasturage. The
orchard grass is one of our most valuable; for hay it may be inferior
to timothy; but it is decidedly superior to it for pasturage. Colonel
Powell, of Pennsylvania, after growing it ten years, declares that it
produces more pasturage than any cultivated grass he has even seen in
America. It should be spread on a floor and sprinkled with water a day
or two before sowing, it being very light, not weighing more than
twelve or fourteen pounds to the bushel.
The following table exhibits the quantity of seed, by _weight_, and
also on the three kinds of soil: