130 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



red clover seed. It is not so valuable as a fertilizing crop as 

 red clover : its root and its mode of growth are different. 

 The alsike is a perennial, like red clover. Both are short- 

 lived perennials. You can keep red clover three or four 

 years, and the alsike four or five years, on good soils. If you 

 sow it on a drj and exposed knoll, and allow your cattle to 

 feed it too close, you will not see any thing of it the next 

 year ; but, when it is sown on soil fairly well suited to it, I 

 think you can depend upon a good return from the alsike for 

 four or five years at least. It is more like our white clover than 

 red clover in its growth and blossom, and must be regarded 

 as one of the valuable additions to our forage crops. I should 

 not want to seed down with orchard-grass, meadow-fescue, 

 and other early grasses and red clover, without putting in 

 some of the alsike also. If I were going to sow red clover 

 alone, I should sow twelve or fifteen pounds of seed ; but I 

 should prefer to have eight or ten pounds of red clover and 

 five pounds of alsike, than to have fifteen pounds of red 

 clover. It is rather finer, rather more slender in its mode of 

 growth ; but it is very sweet and nutritious, and the cattle 

 like it very much. 



The orchard-grass has many good qualities, both as a 

 grass to cut for hay and as a pasture-grass. It is rather coarse, 

 if sown thin. It must be cut early, or you lose a great deal of 

 its value. It will usually blossom about the middle of June, 

 and ought to be cut at that time. Some complain that it 

 does not hold in the soil as well as some other grasses ; but 

 this depends upon the quality of the land, and whether it is 

 well adapted to it or not. It has the quality of starting 

 earlier, after being cut or grazed off by cattle, than most of 

 our other grasses. It is apt to grow in clusters ; but this can 

 be avoided, to a very great extent, by good cultivation of the 

 land, and by sowing it thickly. It requires to be sown thickly, 

 — two or three bushels of seed to the acre, if sown alone ; but 

 a liberal mixture of other species will give a better result. 

 The meadow-fescue is a common grass with us ; and the seed 

 can now be got in our markets at a very reasonable price, as 

 can all of the other grasses to which I have referred. At 

 the time when my Fourth Report was made, it was not possi- 

 ble to get, in our markets, a great many of the species to 

 whicli I alluded ; but I am very glad to say that the best 



