24 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



suifer serious loss from negligence in growing a greater 

 variety, or rather a greater mixture of varieties, and that by 

 taming, and making friends of many more of the wild and' 

 uncultivated grasses, their forage crops would yield them a 

 larger reward for their labor and capital. The cultivation of 

 grass — the king among crops — the land devoted to it, the 

 care and cost of harvesting and housing, the millions of ani- 

 mals subsisted by it, the money value realized from it, the 

 force of the expression "all flesh is grass," unitedly demand 

 a breaking up of our " cut in ahibaster " mode of grass grow- 

 ing. He who makes the acquisition of a friendly grass, 

 doubles his material resources, and to this end our skill, 

 industry and research should be directed. 



"Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise. 

 He who delays this work from day to day, 

 Does on a river's bank expecting staj"^, 

 Till the whole stream that stopt him shall be gone, 

 Which runs, and as it runs, forever will run on." 



Discussion; 

 Mr. Keyes. In order to raise good grass, a man wants to 

 know the time to sow seed, and the amount necessary to the 

 acre, and the time to cut the grass. These three things seem to 

 be absolutely necessary. I had a piece of ground a few years 

 ago that was so wet that I could not seed it in the sirring. I 

 thought I would seed it in June. There was a little place I 

 could not get to. Finally, it was left until some time in 

 August, when I plowed it, spread my dressing and seeded it 

 down, and it made an excellent piece of grass land. The 

 next year I got about the best crop of grass I ever grew. In 

 seeding, we ought to know how much we shall put on an 

 acre. Our friend says forty pounds to the acre. That seems 

 to be placing them rather thick. In putting on clover seed 

 we find two hundred seventy-six thousand two hundred 

 ninety-six seeds to one peck, and in one square inch we have 

 five seeds. We frequently put on red-top. I never had 

 courage to count and find the number of seeds in a peck or 



