SECRETARY'S REPORT. 163 



Top-dressing- has been practiced as yet, but little, yet it is 

 Ihc way of dressing. Our farmers are beginning to adopts this 

 method. Thus far it has been done with manure from the yard or 

 heap, spread on in the spring. As for the quantity I do not know 

 of any definite quantity ; it has not become general yet, and there- 

 fore no standard has been fixed. They, however, cover the 

 ground pretty well. The effect has been a mai-ked one, and the 

 only reason of its hot coming into general use is the want of ma- 

 nure. Most of our farmers have scarcely enough for their cultivated 

 crops ; in flict, I might say they have not half enough, for they could 

 put on double and not over-dress. 



Although manure is no doubt the best article for top-dressing, 

 yet, sand, loam, gravel or clay even, spread evenly upon our grass 

 land, would pay three times over for all costs. Probably August 

 and September would be as good a time for dressing with sand or 

 loam ; the ground is then dry ; it would not cut up the fields as in 

 spring. The loam would be dry and finely pulverized ; would 

 spread evenly without difficulty. It would also cover up what 

 seeds might have dropped through haying. Also a little seed 

 might be scattered about, under such circumstances, with good 

 advantage." 



By Jabkz D. Hill, Moscow. 



" I have never sown grass seed except in spring ; therefore cannot 

 say there is any better season. Have seeded to grass in conjunc- 

 tion witli wheat, rye, barley and oats, and am not aware that one 

 kind of grain is preferable to another for this purpase, unless it is 

 sown thinner, so as to afford the young grass a better chance to 

 escape smothering. You ask, vvhat varieties besides herdsgrass, 

 redtop and clover do you cultivate, and what their value compared 

 with the above-named ? If by this, you mean the kind of grasses 

 which I encourage and improve by manuring and loosening the soil, 

 I shall add "witch grass" to the catalogue. Its value for' dry 

 foi'age I consider equal if not superior to either of tlie others on 

 tlie list. It is true, I do not sow the seed — as is the case with the 

 others — because it is not necessary ; being endowed with the rare 

 faculty of re-seeding itself, or maintaining its existence in suitable 

 soils, in defiance of very rough usage, when it has once been in- 

 troduced, which was the case on my farm when I purchased it. 

 Had it not been pretty well stocked with witcli grass, I do not 



