118 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



fall cannot produce a great effect. AVe all know that the grass 

 roots are nearly dead, and if so, top-dressing alone cannot do 

 much good. My method has been, when the mowing gets run 

 down, to turn it over about six or eight inches deep, in September or 

 October, and the last part of October haul from twenty to twenty- 

 five loads of dressing from the barn cellar to the acre and spread 

 it broad-cast from the cart. In the spring, put on barley. By 

 this method I never have failed of a good catch, and good crops 

 afterwards. If any one, as h'e travels through the State, is careful 

 to observe, he will see a large proportion of our best grass lands 

 lying waste ; they neither produce a growth of wood nor a 

 growth of grass, but merely serve as a range for cattle when 

 there is a drouth. We must resort to these places, ditch them, 

 haul what we take from the ditches to our barns and use it to help 

 increase the amount of dressing. 



If any one asks, What shall we sell, if neither hay, potatoes nor 

 oats ? I answer, sell butter, cheese, calves, beef, pork and pigs. 

 Then the crops are all consumed upon the farm, everything is 

 made to contribute to the supply of manure. After any farmer 

 has tried dairying, he will be very loth to fall back upon the 

 skinning process again, As farmers, we must look to the condition 

 of our farms, and see that (he fertility is kept up. If we do so, 

 although our barns may be empty now, we shall see them well- 

 filled again, and our stock again looking plump and sleek. 



Mr. Silvanus Poor of Andover. My farm is what is called 

 an interval farm, that is to say, most of the hay is cut on what is 

 known with us as interval, or on swampy land, and contains one 

 hundred and fifty acres. 



When the town was lotted, nothing was called interval that 

 was not dry enough to plow and cultivate, and was covered with 

 hard wood, elm, maple, beech, birch, oak, &c, intermixed, in 

 some cases, with spruce, pine and hemlock. 



The upland, as a general thing, is from twenty to seventy-five 

 feet higher than the interval, and in most places the banks are 

 steep and curved, as though formed by the washing of the river. 

 *At the foot of these banks there is a belt of swampy land, from 

 ten to fifty rods wide, generally composed of a deep black mud. 

 This is kept very wet and soft by the water that makes out at the 

 foot of the ridges, so much so that none of our domestic animals 

 ever attempted to cross it. For many years such land was not 

 considered worth clearing, and in many places they are not 



