MANAGEMENT OF MEADOWS AND PASTURES. H% 



that one kind of manure gives you four pounds of hay more on 

 your rod than that which was unmanured, then you know that four 

 times 160 will be the amount of extra hay got from an acre by the 

 use of that particular manure. You know what you can sell that 

 extra hay for. Suppose 500 pounds is the result; you know what 

 500 pounds of English hay will bring; then calculate how much 

 it will cost to put that manure on 160 square rods, and the meas- 

 ure of profit is given you, as it can be in no other way. It is a 

 very easy thing to do, if you will only take the trouble. In that 

 way you will learn precisely what kind of manure your soil re- 

 quires, and you will also learn what you can afford to pay for any 

 kind of manure whatever. 



]\1r. Paris. Will not plowing, in the mode you speak of to-day, 

 and top-dressing the land, restore the ordinary grasses to an old 

 field that is bound out, without the application of more seed ? 



Mr. Gould. In many cases it will, yet it is generally profitable 

 to put on seed. I would always put on seed ; it will almost 

 always pay. 



Mr. Paris. We find difficulty in getting different varieties of 

 seed. There are very few kinds of seed preserved. 



Mr. Gould. Only let the demand come, and there is no doubt 

 whatever that there will be a supply. The reason you do not get 

 them is because there is no demand. The reason I have spoken 

 with what you will, perhaps, call an unwarrantable degree of 

 energy, is because I want the farmers to rise to a nobler ether, to 

 breathe a diviner air, than they have been accustomed to. I do 

 not want to see farmers sitting quietly down without effort to im- 

 prove. I want to see them day by day acquiring higher knowl- 

 edge, and a more philosophical comprehension of all the principles 

 underlying their business. That is why I speak so warmly. 



Mr. Hersey. In your opinion, will the grasses of which you 

 have spoken flourish in Maine as well as in New York ? 



Mr. Gould. Undoubtedly they will wherever the soil is suit- 

 able naturally, or is fitted to their wants by suitable culture and 

 manures. You have, without doubt, all, or nearly all the varieties 

 to which I have alluded, growing naturally in different parts of 

 your State. The grasses are generally well diffused over large 

 breadths, and although those which you sow intentionally are 

 more common, there is no difficulty in growing many others. 



Mr. Paris. The grass crop and the apple crop are of vital im- 

 portance to us here in. Maine, for they are about the only two 

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