112 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



In the circular before alladed to, other inquiries were introduced. 

 and, while upon some points, the facts obtained are deemed too scanty, 

 partial and imperfect to be considered reliable as a basis for general 

 conclusions, upon others, information has been elicited Avhich may 

 prove of practical value. One of these is the Hay Crop. 



There is no occasion among us to invite attention to the production 

 of hay as a forage crop, or to urge its importance as the principal 

 dependence of our farmers for wintering their stock. This is already 

 sufficiently understood and felt. The necessity In our case is rather 

 to suggest caution, lest the exclusive or undue reliance upon it fjr 

 the abDve named purpose do not result in too long continued suc- 

 cessive cropping, with consequent exhaustion of our fields, and the 

 neglect of green crops, with all the collateral benefits attending 

 them. This has been already alluded to in the remarks on the 

 rotation of crops. Still, as the grass crop is, and always should be, 

 the great staple crop of Maine, it is highly important that Ave 

 endeavor to learn all we can, of the conditions necessary to its most 

 successful culture. 



llespecting tlie best preparation for grass, the general tenor of 

 reply amounts to little more than a recommendation of previous 

 tillage with corn or roots, — some for one, more for two years, and a 

 few for three or four years, — applying manure, and seeding down 

 with grain, generally wheat ; although where buckwheat is exten- 

 eively grown, the preference for seeding with this grain rather tiian 

 with any other is expressed in strong terms. Some prefer seeding 

 alone, and these name August or early in September as the best 

 season. Lite fiiU sowing is condemned by nearly or quite all who 

 refer to it, but Ausiust sowiiig seems "-rowing into favor, althouifh 

 not much practised as yet, four-fifths of the replies being in favor of 

 spring. Some statements are hore appended which embrace several 

 additional points worthy of consideration : 



" Grass lands are Bceded tlie lust of April and M:iy, \vitli herd^ yfrn^s, clover 

 and red top. iNLmy of our farmers would dispense entirely with dover, wero 

 it not for the great advantage to their grass land from the amount of food for 

 other grass sujiplied fro:n the elovei" root, and especially the condition in which 

 heavy lands arc found when the clover is killed out. 



Many consider t!ie alter crop more than doubled from the porous state of 

 clayey i-oils after clover. Any one can imagine the condition of a piece of 

 ground with holes in it as ihicli, as large and as dtep as each clover root 



