SECRETARY'S REPORT. 121 



*' Top-dressing is not practiced to any considerable extent in town. I think, 

 however, that ia many localities, a top-dressing, with well rotted compost 

 manure, would be highly beneficial and economical, if applied in the fall or 

 early in the spring. My reasons are, tliat we hive much land that is not profit- 

 able to plow, unless it is underdrained at a great expense, which, after it ia 

 seeded down and made fit to receive the scythe and horse-rake, an application 

 of manure once in four or five years, would, at a small expense, keep in good 

 condition for grass for a long term of years." 



E. A. Bradeen, "Waterborough. 



" Ground that ia too wet for good tillage, is very much benefitted by top- 

 dressing, as it improves both the ([uality and quantity, and will hold out very 

 much longer. Apply it early in the spring, and if compost manure cannofc 

 be spared, common earth will richly pay the labor." 



Datid Noyks, Norway. 



" I practice top-dressing only by carting rich mould or soil upon low land, 

 and find much benefit therefrom. I pursue that course, because it is not 60 

 convenient to cultivate wet lands. I apply it in autumn." 



Mark Dennett, Kittery. 



" Not much done in this way. I have, on a very small scale, top-dressed 

 with fine, well rotted manure, and with admirable success. My only reason 

 is, that God, the greatest agriculturist, puts manure at the top." 



E. Jones, Minot. 



" Top-dressing causes the land to hold out to grass longer than any other 

 mode of dressing. Barn manure, loam, dirt from the ditches, almost any- 

 kind of manure, spread on in the month of November, about ten loads to the 

 acre, would increase the crop of hay one-th^rd. It keeps the land warm, and 

 it starts earlier in the spring, and is not so liable to winter kill." 



Thomas J. Burbank, Cooper. 



" Our hay crops might be increased by top-dressing with guano or bone 



dust, but it is so expensive that but few here use it. Some farmers have 



top-dressed their grass land with swamp muck, which makes the grass grow 



finely. Plaster sown very early in the spring on clayey loam grass land, in 



the proportion of one or two bushels per acre, will, in a dry season, be of great 



benefit." 



RuFus BiXBY, Norridgewock. 



" I am of opinion that liquid manure is the best dressing for all mowing 

 fields. A year ago last spring we had occasion to clear out one of our manure 

 pits when it was filled with water, and to get rid of it, hauled it out in hogs- 

 heads to some old grass land, applying it on the driest parts. At mowing 



