SOIL EXHAUSTION AND ROTATION OP CROPS. 163 



application, and this English experience may not apply to the 

 Genesee valley or to the lands of this vicinity, because of differ- 

 ences of soil, but these results of Dr. Voelcker are of very great 

 importance. They enable us to make the experience of those 

 Cotswold farmers of oeneral value, by showing us the reason 

 of their result. They furnish us a grand contribution to our 

 knowledge of the capacities of the clover plant. If the farm- 

 ers of Genesee do not find the rule to hold good with them, 

 we shall find, by study, the reason for it. 



Question. It is often asked. What is to be done with our 

 side-hill pastures in New England, that are too rough and hard 

 or too steep to plow and get manure on ? I have a pasture 

 of this kind. It is naturally moist land, pretty stony, and 

 it has begun to be covered with moss. Forty years ago, one 

 acre of it produced more feed than two do now. What shall 

 I do with that land ? It is considerably steep, and it would, 

 be very unprofitable to undertake to plow, manure, and culti- 

 vate it. I have been thinking of putting on a heavy harrow, 

 well sharpened, with a strong team, in the month of March, 

 when the ground is thawed say three or four inches deep, and 

 harrow it severely, and then sowing clover. Can we not in 

 that way resuscitate these old pastures, so that they will pro- 

 duce something again ? If I can get some information on 

 that point, it will be valuable to me, and I think I have neigh- 

 bors who would receive benefit from it. We have immense 

 quantities here in Windham county of moist side-hill land, 

 too rough to plow and cultivate. What is to become of these 

 pastures ? Are they to become a loss to us ? 



Mr. Low. Travellers in the northern portion of this county 

 will find a great many acres of that kind of land which are 

 producing most luxuriant grass, the result of the application 

 of plaster and ashes. You do not need clover seed if you put 

 on ashes and plaster. 



Prof. Johnson. There is one question to which Mr. Gold 

 referred in a letter to me written previous to the one which 

 I read yesterday, and that is, the waste of manure, which 

 seems to belong to the production of some crops and not to 

 others. Any man who for twenty-five years will cultivate a 



