172 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



experiments, found that the roots of clover penetrated more than 

 two feet, and he estimated that the amount of roots in an acre was 

 four times as much as the crop of clover taken off the surface. If 

 that is the operation of clover, if it permeates the soil in that way, 

 no wonder it prepares the ground for the wheat crop and other 

 crops. There is every encouragement, then, for us to resort to 

 clover as a means of restoring our worn-out lands. We can get a 

 small crop, even the first year, by applying a little capital to the 

 land, in the labor of our teams and our hands. Then we can plow 

 it under, being careful to avoid the error to which the Secretary 

 has referred, of plowing it in when it is too green. 



In regard to top-dressing, the trouble generally is that we do 

 not begin to top-dress so long as we get a fair crop. When we 

 get reduced to a very small crop, we begin to top-dress. There 

 would be just as much propriety in sending for the doctor just as 

 your child was djang, as to top-dress in that way. We must be- 

 gin to top-dress while the plant has roots and they are fastened in 

 the ground ; then I do not see why we cannot keep our mowing 

 land in good condition for a hundred years. 



Resolutions were then passed tendering the thanks of the Board 

 to the municipal authorities of Lewiston, to the agents of the 

 Androscoggin and Bates Manufacturing Companies, to the Hon. 

 J. B. Ham, J. G. Coburn, Esq., and to Mr. J. S. Barrell, for num- 

 erous favors and courteous attentions bestowed upon the Board 

 and upon its members personally, after which the Board finally 

 adjourned. 



