156 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



SO large as it is necessary, but have done me good service. I 

 should advise to have cloth not less than one and half yards wide, 

 and a square will make a good cap. 



"VVe do not consider it any injury to put cattle to eat off the after 

 growth of grass, if put on at the middle of October, and not fed too 

 close. I consider it very injurious to grass land to put cattle on as 

 soon as the hay crop is taken off, 



I have not top dressed grass land extensively. What I have, 

 the result was good. Have done nothing in under draining ; but 

 have drained our low meadows with satisfactory results. We have 

 done a large amount of ditching on*"salt marsh, and it has increased 

 our crops of hay one-third, and the hay is of a better quality. 

 Ditches on salt marsh ought to be made three feet deep and width 

 suiEcient to get out the mud." 



By Caleb Hodgdox, Gorham. 



" Unless grass seed can be sown by the first of May it is best 

 in four years out of five to sow in the fall or winter. The best 

 catch I ever had I sowed in the winter on the crust. But for a 

 number of years I have sowed my grass seed alone without any 

 kind of grain, and am satisfied it is the better way ; and if farmers 

 would try it I think they would come to the same conclusion. 

 There are many reasons for it ; first the grain, no matter what kind, 

 has a tendency to kill the grass. A few years ago I sowed a piece 

 of winter wheat, about one quarter of which was winter killed in 

 sjiots, and for three years I cut double the hay on those spots that 

 I did in any other part of the piece ; and this agrees with my ob- 

 servation since. I sow no other grass seed but herdsgrass and 

 clover — formerly I sowed a mixture of redtop, &c., but it never 

 amounted to much on my land. All the grass I cut in forenoon I 

 spread out and wilt as well as I can, then in the afternoon I rake 

 and bunch up in as small bunches on the ground as I can, but do 

 not care how high the bunches are, and do not meddle with it until 

 the third day unless it be in the latter part of the season when I 

 am sure it will make fit to go in. My clover I never open until 

 the third day. The present year I had two acres of clover, where 

 I had five tons, I cut and wilted as above, and did not open until 

 the third day at ten o'clock, when the ground was dry and warm, 

 and at two that afternoon I commenced hauling in, and never had 

 any made better. One of my neighbors cut a similar piece at the 



