102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Trifolium pratense, (common red clover,) T. repens, (white 

 clover, creeping honey-suckle,) Anthoxanthum odoratum, (sweet 

 vernal grass.) 



Having now determined on our selection of seeds for the partic- 

 ular soil which we may desire to convert into meadow, the next 

 most important question is, how shall we best insure the germina- 

 tion and growth ? 



I have no doubt that most of you can bear witness that this is a 

 serious and important question. Unless you have been more 

 fortunate than your brethren, you have been often obliged to seed 

 your meadows several times before you could form a decent sod, 

 and even then you have had to wait several j'ears before the sod 

 became thick and the meadow profitable. Many a farmer has 

 bewailed the loss of interest on his land, the taxes and the wasted 

 labor which unsuccessful gras^ seeding has imposed upon him. 



To avoid this difficulty you must bring your soil as nearly as 

 possible into the condition of our richest, and best meadows. It 

 is quite impossible to make plants as delicate as young grass 

 grow in lands full of lumps of hard earth, stones and a tangled 

 mass of weed roots and bushes such as we often see on lands 

 which pretend to be prepared for meadows. A careful examina- 

 tion of our best meadows shows that the roots of the grass are 

 surrounded by a fine dark mould, the fertility of the meadow 

 being always proportional to its fineness, depth and darkness. 

 This dark, fine mould is supposed by many farmers to arise from 

 the gradual decay of the vegetation during a long succession of 

 years ; this doubtless is not without its effect but a little reflection 

 will show that it is very trivial. Prof. Johnson estimates the 

 weight of the stubble left in the ground at about one-fourth of the 

 weight of the hay taken of]'; half a ton of these substances would 

 therefore be a very large estimate for the substances left behind, 

 this amount reduced to powder and spread over the surface would 

 not, if it all remained, form a deposit of half an inch in a century, 

 but when we reflect that much of the matter left by the roots and 

 leaves is absorbed by the growing crops of subsequent years we 

 shall see that the fine mould of our old meadows is not derived 

 from this source, at least to any considerable extent. 



This view is farther confirmed by the fact that this mould is uni- 

 formly laid on the top of the soil. When two fields adjoin each 

 other, one being an old meadow, the other a ploughed field, the 

 latter will be covered with stones, while none are visible in the 



