» SECRETARY'S REPORT. 147 



bay with no returns of fertilizing materials being made, until the 

 product would little more than pay for gathering it, and have been 

 turned out to pasture with a view to improvement under a neglect 

 more wholesome than their previous treatment. 



So general is the neglect of pastures in this State, that if my own 

 observation be not at fault, where one acre can be found, upon which 

 labor and expense have been bestowed for the express purpose of 

 improving its condition as pasture ground, there are several which 

 have been so hardly treated that they are confidently expected to 

 improve simply by being thus used. 



This naturally brings us to the consideration of the fact, of which 

 it is difficult to say whether it is better known and more universally 

 acknov/ledged in theory, or more ignored and neglected in practice, 

 viz : that farmers generally strive to occupy too much land. An 

 enlightened policy would dictate the reduction of what is subjected 

 to the plow to the amount which can be properly manured and culti- 

 vated — to bring up so much of the pasturage as is not under the 

 plow to a fair degree of productiveness, and so much as cannot thus 

 be improved, be used to grow a good crop of wood or timber, instead 

 of a worthless crop of bushes, brakes and weeds. 



Wherever a rotation of crops can be adopted, let this be done, and 

 let it include a definite term of pasturage. To such extent, if the 

 rotation be judiciously carried out will good pasturage be secured. 

 For the rest, let the means used be adapted to the nature of the 

 case. In many instances where a rotation may not be practicable, 

 the land may be plowed, harrowed and re-seeded.* This alone will 

 often pay a large profit, and larger still, if at the same time an ap- 

 plication of compost or leached ashes be made. If this cannot be 

 done, as with a great deal of land in Maine, where from too steep 



* I am awaro that an opinion prevails among many farmers that the sward obtained 

 by re-seeding plowed pasture, is greatly deficient, both in permanency and in the 

 sweetness of its yield. That such has often proved to be the case, is readily admitted; 

 and that such will continue to be the case so long as the seeding is confined to Red 

 Clover and Timothy, we ought confidently to expect; as the former is only ;i biennial, 

 and the latter (of first excellence though it bo as a meadow grass) is unreliable as a pas- 

 ture grass. We have yet to learn of the first instance where a sufficient re-seeding with 

 the grasses which chiefly prevail in our best pastures has failed to give, within a proper 

 length of time, a sward fully as permanent and yielding quite as abundant and sweet 

 feed as any old one whatever. 



