172 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



or unleachcd ashes, bone dust or superphosphate of lime may be 

 applied. If, on the other hand, the pasture naturally produces 

 good grass, but not of sufficient quantity to keep the stock in a 

 thriving state, it should be carefully trimmed of the bushes and 

 pastured by sheep, or, especially not crowded with any kind of 

 stock. In this, I have the eminent Thaer for my authority, who 

 says in his Principles of Agriculture, that, when too great a num- 

 ber of cattle are allowed in one pasture, vegetation is choked, the 

 grass has not time to reach its full growth, the tops are bitten off 

 by the cattle and often torn up by the roots. 



Sheep are kept in considerable numbers by the farmers of the 

 county, but not half the number that miglit be. They are well 

 fitted to renovate our worn out pastures, and it is an established 

 fact that land grazed by sheep constantly improves in fertility. 

 Sheep are liable to be killed by dogs, and also require a much closer, 

 and therefore more expensive fence than any other stock, which 

 are two objections against the use of sheep for the purpose of im- 

 proving pastures. It may not be inappropriate to give in this 

 place, the statements of an experienced fanner of Massachusetts, 

 as given by Sanford Howard, editor of the " Boston Cultivator :" 

 "In a late conversation with a gentleman, he mentioned a plan 

 which he had in view for improving a rough pasture lying at a dis- 

 tance from his homestead. He said he intended to put on so many 

 sheep that they would eat everything that was eatable on the land,, 

 and should give them oil-cake enough to fatten them. Thus he 

 would have the wild vegetation killed and the land made rich by 

 the oil-cake manure, which would insure a good growth of the 

 right kind of herbage. The idea strikes us favorably — we cannot 

 see why something like this may not be done extensively. It 

 might be well to confine the sheep at night bj"- hurdles on the spots 

 which most need manure — shifting from place to place, as the 

 requisite dressing had been applied." 



A large proportion of the land devoted to pasturage in the coun- 

 ty is high and rocky, thus, with good treatment, well calculated 

 for gi-azing. But much of the value of pasture land will be found 

 to consist, not only in its improvement by some of the methods 

 just alluded to, but in the skill and judgment of the farmer in 

 stocking his pasture to advantage. He should be acquainted with 

 every division of it, and so stock it that the herbage may not grow 

 faster than it can be eaten by the sheep or cattle, and that the 

 animals may always have the amount needed. Each animal re- 



