212 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



Gentlemen of the Board, I make these suggestions in rela- 

 tion to our hay-crop, knowing very well that there is a diver- 

 sity of opinion in this matter. If they meet your views I 

 shall be pleased ; if not, I hope you will take them up and 

 shake them out. 



In relation to our pastures I fully agree in regard to this 

 matter with the Board of Agriculture an almost all points. 

 I would apply to our pasture-lands precisely what I would 

 apply to our mowing-fields. I believe that we cannot afford 

 any longer to use these pastures in the condition in which 

 they now are. I do not believe we can afford to buy stock 

 or raise stock and attempt to grow milk and then feed them on 

 brakes, brambles and herbage of that kind; that thing is 

 " played out ; " and if we are going to try to supply our own 

 home markets with butter, wdth cheese and w^ith milk, the 

 first step to be taken in order to supply these elements is to 

 improve our pasture-lands, improve the qualities of the soils, 

 and increase the quantity of the grasses they produce. In 

 relation to this matter my opinion coincides almost exactly 

 with the opinions of the Board of Agriculture in relation to 

 the methods of their improvement ; but some things may be 

 said in detail in reference to how it shall be done. I do sin- 

 cerely pity that man who has a hundred acres of pasture-land, 

 one-half of the surface of which is nothing but rock, and half 

 of the remainder is covered with brush. He is to be pitied. 

 I know the trouble and annoyance of being everlastingly, 

 through two months of the year, mowing bushes and clearing 

 our pastures, but that has got to be done. It is no use to 

 talk about making fine, sweet nutritious grasses grow where 

 the land is half covered with bushes. We have got to get ri(i 

 of these bushes somehow. Now there are various ways to do 

 it, some of which have been recommended by our good friend, 

 the Secretary. I do not know whether it is in his book or 

 not. If it is not, it should be, and I will put it there now. 

 One way to get rid of these bushes on pastures which cannot 

 be ploughed, is by pasturing them with certain kinds of stock. 

 I approve of what the Board of Agriculture has said in rela- 

 tion to retaining the fertilizing elements which have been 

 carried away ; but I would try to kill two birds with one 

 stone. While I was trying to get something from my pasture 



