20(j BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



considerable portion of our most exhausted lands to the growth of 

 wood. Fuel and timber are becominof objects of steadily increasing 

 importance, and the effect of a growth of trees on the redemption of 

 land from sterility is very considerable. Their roots exert great 

 power in decomposing the rocks in the soil, evolving from them the 

 mineral elements of plants, and besides deepening and mellowing 

 the soil, a forest growth would add to it, by an annual deposit of 

 leaves, a great amount of vegetable matter. In truth, no sniall part 

 of the productive power of newly cleared lands is attributable to 

 this very process having gone on year after year, and why may it 

 not be the part of wisdom to profit by the hint thus furnished in the 

 operations of nature? Besides this, a collateral advantage of no 

 mean worth would result from the lessening of the number of acres 

 under cultivation, which would enable the farmer to work the remain- 

 der more thoroughly, and of course more profitably 



Still another method of securing this desirable end, and the last 

 specific mode which it is proposed to introduce, is suggested below : 



" This is a hard question. I should say, from ray own experience, 

 that in order to reclaim land, or check it in its downward tendency, 

 you shoul 1 pasture sheep five to eight years, and the land Avill then 

 be in order for a series of crops. If the slow process of pastuiing 

 cannot be w.iited for, plow in green crops, if enough of anything 

 green grows upon them to make it profitable. Plow deep " 



J. Davis, Webster. 



"With regard to the recovering of partially exhausted lands, I 

 would recommend the pasturing of sheep for a number of years, but 

 by no means exhaust it still farther. I would consider it poor policy 

 to wear land wholly out and then abandon it." 



Kuius BiXBY, Norridgewock. 



" Turn it out to sheep pasture." 



D. IIoLDEX, Otisfield. 



"I would recommend summer plowing, if you have not sheep to 

 turn on and pasture. When grass is run out, sheep will bring it 

 in agam. If you wish to crop, put on your c\ttle and yanl a piece. 

 If tlie hind is not entirely exiiausted, the fertility of the soil will be 

 recovered the following summer." 



T. J. BuRBAXK, Cooper. 



" Under the circumstances you name, I would recommend plowing 

 in clover or turning out to sheep for a restoration of such land." 



J. F. Anderson. So. Windham. 



