Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement

by Alva Agee

The Cornell station recommends the following for good land:

Timothy	8 to 12 pounds
Kentucky blue-grass	4 pounds
Meadow fescue	1 to 4 pounds
Orchard grass	1 to 4 pounds
Red clover	6 pounds
Alsike clover	3 pounds
White clover	1 to 2 pounds

For poor lands it recommends this mixture:

Timothy	8 to 12 pounds
Red-top	4 pounds
Canadian blue-grass	4 pounds
Red clover	6 pounds
Alsike clover	3 pounds
White clover	1 pound

Zinn, of West Virginia, recommends the following mixture for permanent pasture:

Timothy	4 pounds
Red-top	4 pounds
Orchard grass	4 pounds
Kentucky blue-grass	7 pounds
Red clover	2 pounds
Alsike clover	2 pounds
White clover	1 pound

Renewal of Permanent Pastures.—There is much pasture land that could not be broken with profit for reseeding. There is neither time, nor money, nor opportunity at the owner's hand for this purpose, and often the loss of soil resulting from washing would be a bar if the labor would cost nothing. The renewal of such grass lands can be made with profit if pernicious weeds are not in the way. Plant-food, lime, and grass seed are wanted. A disk or sharp spike-tooth harrow, used in early spring or after an August rain, will give some fresh earth for covering the seeds. A complete fertilizer always is needed. The clovers should go into the seed-mixture used.

Sheep on a New York farm.

Destroying Bushes.—The absence of sheep is evident in the appearance of the greater area of permanent pasture in the mountainous regions of the eastern states. Bushes, briers, and other weeds must be destroyed if pasture land would be kept in a profitable state, and only the sheep or the goat is the fully efficient aid of man in caring for such land. The presence of dogs makes the tariff on wool, or lack of it, a minor matter. The cost to the country, in indirect effect upon pastures only, due to unrestrained dogs, is incalculable. The maintenance of good sods without sheep is a problem without solution in some regions.