Agriculture for Beginners - Daniel Harvey Hill (love letters to the dead .TXT) 📗
- Author: Daniel Harvey Hill
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In planting either for a meadow or for a pasture, the farmer should mix different varieties of grass seeds. Nature mixes them when she plants, and Nature is always a trustworthy teacher.
In planting for a pasture the aim should be to sow such seeds as will give green grass from early spring to latest fall. In seeding for a meadow such varieties should be sowed together as ripen about the same time.
Even in those sections of the country where it grows sparingly and where it is easily crowded out, clover should be mixed with all grasses sowed, for it leaves in the soil a wealth of plant food for the grasses coming after it to feed on. Nearly every part of our country has some clover that experience shows to be exactly suited to its soil and climate. Study these clovers carefully and mix them with your grass seed.
The reason for mixing clover and grass is at once seen. The true grasses, so far as science now shows, get all their nitrogen from the soil; hence they more or less exhaust the soil. But, as several times explained in this book, the clovers are legumes, and all legumes are able by means of the bacteria that live on their roots to use the free nitrogen of the air. Hence without cost to the farmer these clovers help the soil to feed their neighbors, the true grasses. For this reason some light perennial legume should always be added to grass seed.
Fig. 226. Single Plant of Giant Millet
It is not possible for grasses to do well in a soil that is full of weeds. For this reason it is always best to sow grass in fields from which cultivated crops have just been taken. Soil which is to have grass sowed in it should have its particles pressed together. The small grass seeds cannot take root and grow well in land that has just been plowed and which, consequently, has its particles loose and comparatively far apart. On the other hand, land from which a crop of corn or cotton has just been harvested is in a compact condition. The soil particles are pressed well together. Such land when mellowed by harrowing makes a splendid bed for grass seeds. A firm soil draws moisture up to the seeds, while a mellow soil acts as a blanket to keep moisture from wasting into the air, and at the same time allows the heated air to circulate in the soil.
In case land has to be plowed for grass-seeding, the plowing should be done as far as possible in advance of the seeding. Then the plowed land should be harrowed several times to get the land in a soft, mellow condition.
If the seed-bed be carefully prepared, little work on the ground is necessary after the seeds are sowed. One light harrowing is sufficient to cover the broadcast seeds. This harrowing should always be done as soon as the seeds are scattered, for if there be moisture in the soil the tiny seeds will soon sprout, and if the harrowing be done after germination is somewhat advanced, the tender grass plants will be injured.
There are many kinds of pasture and meadow grasses. In New England, timothy, red clover, and redtop are generally used for the mowing crop. For permanent pasture, in addition to those mentioned, there should be added white clover and either Kentucky or Canadian blue grass. In the Southern states a good meadow or pasture can be made of orchard grass, red clover, and redtop. For a permanent pasture in the South, Japan clover, Bermuda, and such other local grasses as have been found to adapt themselves readily to the climate should be added. In the Middle States temporary meadows and pastures are generally made of timothy and red clover, while for permanent pastures white clover and blue grass thrive well. In the more western states the grasses previously suggested are readily at home. Alfalfa is proving its adaptability to nearly all sections and climates, and is in many respects the most promising grass crop of America.
Fig. 227. Bermuda
It hardly ever pays to pasture meadows, except slightly, the first season, and then only when the soil is dry. It is also poor policy to pasture any kind of grass land early in the spring when the soil is wet, because the tramping of animals crushes and destroys the crowns of the plants. After the first year the sward becomes thicker and tougher, and the grass is not at all injured if it is grazed wisely.
Fig. 228. Alfalfa the Wonderful
The first crop of the season is being cut and stored for winter
The state of maturity at which grass should be harvested to make hay of the best quality varies somewhat with the different grasses and with the use which is to be made of the hay. Generally speaking, it is a good rule to cut grass for hay just as it is beginning to bloom or just after the bloom has fallen. All grasses become less palatable to stock as they mature and form seed. If grass be allowed to go to seed, most of the nutrition in the stalk is used to form the seed.
Fig. 229. Harvesting Alfalfa
Hence a good deal of food is lost by waiting to cut hay until the seeds are formed.
Pasture lands and meadow lands are often greatly improved by replowing and harrowing in order to break up the turf that forms and to admit air more freely into the soil. The plant-roots that are destroyed by the plowing or harrowing make quickly available plant food by their decay, and the physical improvement of the soil leads to a thicker and better stand. In the older sections of the country commercial fertilizer can be used to advantage in producing hay and pasturage. If, however, clover has just been grown on grass land or if it is growing well with the grass, there is no need to add nitrogen. If the grass seems to lack sufficient nourishment, add phosphoric acid and potash. However, grass not grown in company with clover often needs dried blood, nitrate of soda, or some other nitrogen-supplying agent. Of course it is understood that no better fertilizer can be applied to grass than barnyard manure.
SECTION LII. LEGUMESOften land which was once thought excellent is left to grow up in weeds. The owner says that the land is worn out, and that it will not pay to plant it. What does "worn out" mean? Simply that constant cropping has used up the plant food in the land. Therefore, plants on worn-out land are too nearly starved to yield bountifully. Such wearing out is so easily prevented that no owner ought ever to allow his land to become poverty-stricken. But in case this misfortune has happened, how can the land be again made fertile?
On page 24 you learned that phosphoric acid, potash, and nitrogen are the foods most needed by plants. "Worn out," then, to put it in another way, usually means that a soil has been robbed of one of these plant necessities, or of two or of all three. To make the land once more fruitful it is necessary to restore the missing food or foods. How can this be done? Two of these plant foods, namely, phosphoric acid and potash, are minerals. If either of these is lacking, it can be supplied only by putting on the land some fertilizer containing the missing food. Fortunately, however, nitrogen, the most costly of the plant foods, can be readily and cheaply returned to poor land.
Fig. 230. Alfalfa ready for the Third Cutting
As explained on page 32 the leguminous crops have the power of drawing nitrogen from the air and, by means of their root-tubercles, of storing it in the soil. Hence by growing these crops on poor land the expensive nitrogen is quickly restored to the soil, and only the two cheaper plant foods need be bought. How important it is then to grow these leguminous plants! Every farmer should so rotate his planting that at least once every two or three years a crop of legumes may add to the fruitfulness of his fields.
Moreover these crops help land in another way. They send a multitude of roots deep into the ground. These roots loosen and pulverize the soil, and their decay, at the end of the growing season, leaves much humus in the soil. Land will rarely become worn out if legumes are regularly and wisely grown.
From the fact that they do well in so many different sections and in so many different climates, the following are the most useful legumes: alfalfa, clovers, cowpeas, vetches, and soy beans.
Alfalfa. Alfalfa is primarily a hay crop. It thrives in the Far West, in the Middle West, in the North, and in the South. In fact, it will do well wherever the soil is rich, moist, deep, and underlaid by an open subsoil. The vast areas given to this valuable crop are yearly increasing in every section of the United States. Alfalfa, however, unlike the cowpea, does not take to poor land. For its cultivation, therefore, good fertile land that is moist but not water-soaked should be selected.
Fig. 231. Sheep fattening on Alfalfa Stubble
Good farmers are partial to alfalfa for three reasons. First, it yields a heavy crop of forage or hay. Second, being a legume, it improves the soil. Third, one seeding lasts a long time. This length of life may, however, be destroyed by pasturing or abusing the alfalfa.
Alfalfa is different from most plants in this respect: the soil in which it grows must have certain kinds of bacteria in it. These cause the growth of tubercles on the roots. These bacteria, however, are not always present in land that has not been planted in alfalfa. Hence if this plant is to be grown successfully these helpful bacteria must sometimes be supplied artificially.
There are two very easy ways of supplying the germs. First, fine soil from an alfalfa field may be scattered broadcast over the fields to be seeded. Second, a small mass of alfalfa tubercle germs may be put into a liquid containing proper food to make these germs multiply and grow; then the seeds to be planted are soaked in this liquid in order that the germs may fasten on the seeds.
Before the seeds are sowed the soil should be mellowed. Over this well-prepared land about twenty pounds of seed to the acre should be scattered. The seed may be scattered by hand or by a seed-sower. Cover with a light harrow. The time of planting varies somewhat with the climate. Except where the winters are too severe the seed may be sowed either in the spring or in the fall. In the South sow only in the fall.
Fig. 232. Herd of Dairy Cattle grazing on Alfalfa Stubble
During the first season one mowing, perhaps more, is necessary to insure a good stand and also to keep down the weeds. When the first blossoms appear in the early summer, it is time to start the mower. After this the alfalfa should be cut every two, three, or four weeks. The number of times depends on the rapidity of growth.
This crop rarely makes a good yield the first year, but if a good stand be secured, the yield steadily increases. After a good stand has been secured, a top-dressing
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