GRASS CULTURE. ' 171 



constituents of the grasses, so far as regards all the soluble in- 

 gredients that are fitted for making milk, fat, bone and muscle, 

 increase at the same time, and when they contain the constituents 

 that are required for making milk in the greatest degree, they con- 

 tain the elements suited to make bone and muscle in the greatest 

 degree. 



.Gov. Brown. The first question propounded when we came in 

 this afternoon I believe was something like this, "IIow can we 

 obtain the largest and best crops of grass in the most profitable 

 way ?" That is a very interesting question, and a great many in- 

 teresting facts have been stated here in relation to it. When we 

 can all settle down upon one conclusion in regard to that question, 

 then your hay crop in the State of Maine will probably be trebled 

 in the course of two or three years. But we shail never arrive at 

 that, because we are a free thinking and acting people, and do 

 pretty much as we please ; and it is hard bringing our opinions 

 into accord. 



Down here in the State of Maine, you have everything to do 

 with. I was never among such a people. Talk about using 100 

 bushels of ashes to the acre ! We should almost as soon think of 

 using 100 bushels of gold dust. We cannot get ashes except at 

 .very high prices indeed. I have no doubt they produced all the 

 results which have been stated by Dr. Garcelon and other gentle- 

 men here. We know they can be used to great advantage on 

 almost any soil or crop. The practice in Massachusetts is very 

 common of laying down lands to grass in the fall, after we have 

 taken off a crop of anything we can get early, so as to plow the 

 land by the first of September ; but it is preferable to do it the last 

 of August. We plow the land, manure it, cover the manure only 

 two or three inches, and then sow grass seed and nothing else. 

 That is the way most of our land is laid down to grass. Some 

 people hoe the corn crop flat, and lay the land down to grass in 

 that way, and succeed admirably. There are various ways of get- 

 ting at the same thing. 



Your Secretary has alluded to the matter of clearing and pre- 

 paring the soil for other crops, especially wheat. The cultivation 

 of clover not only gives us the best fodder, in my opinion, that 

 grows, for stock of all kinds, especially for milch cows, but it en- 

 riches the land beyond anything that most of us have had any 

 idea of until a very short time. A gentleman living in the town 

 of Lexington, six miles below me, who made some very careful 



