beginning life, in the
case of timothy, blue-grass, red-top, red clover, and alfalfa is in the
summer or autumn. The best conditions of growth are given where no
stronger plants take the plant-food and moisture. Wherever there is any
difficulty in getting heavy grass and clover sods after the lime
deficiency has been met, and wherever a hay crop has more value than a
small-grain crop, the method of seeding alone in August should be
employed. In warmer latitudes the date may be a little later, but in
the northern states it should be in the first half of August for best
results. Seeding alone offers opportunity to make conditions right for
the seeds which are to be used, and in view of the importance of heavy
sods to our agriculture, this reason alone is sufficient. In some
regions the ability to substitute a good hay crop for a cereal that
brings small net income is an item of value, adding to the proportion
of feeding-stuff produced in the rotation and to the resulting supply
of manure. The practice of making seedings to grass and clover alone is
growing, and it is based on sound reasoning.

Crops that may Precede.--Farms that are under common crop-rotations may
adopt the practice of August seeding. The winter wheat comes off in
time for preparation, and this is true of an early variety of oats, and
of rye and barley. Early crops of vegetables get out of the way nicely.
There is a vast total area of thin soil that may be brought up to a
productive stage rapidly by the growth of a green-manuring crop to
precede the grass and clover. Rye may be sown in the fall and plowed
down in May, and cowpeas planted to be disked into the soil. Oats and
Canada peas add organic matter with nitrogen when plowed down. The
summer fallow, which deservedly has fallen into general disuse, may
well be employed when a soil is in an inert state, provided grass and
clover be permitted to appropriate the plant-food made soluble by the
fallowing. The catch crops add organic matter while cleansing the land
of weeds; the fallowing releases plant-food and is peculiarly efficient
in killing out weeds.

Care must be exercised about preserving moisture in the ground, and
therefore a green crop should not be plowed under immediately before
seeding time. When a soil is thin, there may be no better preparatory
crop than the cowpea, which will not make too rank a growth in the
north to prevent its handling with a weighted disk harrow. By this
means the s