VARIETY OF PLANT-FOOD. 145 



He puts on a good dressing of that, and waits to see the 

 result. He is disappointed. The grass is a little imjDroved 

 in quality, but he cannot see that he has got his money back ; 

 and he makes up his mind forthwith, that ground bone does 

 but little good on his land. 



Or perhaps he thought that ammonia, or some nitrogenous 

 stimulant, was just what his grass-land needed ; and he applies 

 guano, or nitrate of soda, or some form of muriate or sulphate 

 of ammonia. He finds his grass takes on a deep green color, 

 and shows signs of a vigorous growth. He begins to think 

 he has hit the mark this time; but he soon finds that his 

 cattle do not relish it as well as grass that has been grown 

 under less stimulus. He notices that grass with such a growth 

 is Tiot so healthful and nourishing as he expected it would be, 

 and that it soon assumes a sickly appearance. He makes up 

 his mind that too much stimulating manure in too soluble a 

 form acts on grass very much as an unnecessary stimulus does 

 on men, giving a high color and increased vitality, with a 

 tendency to premature decay. In fact, the grass will suffer 

 from such treatment sooner or later, just as a man who lives 

 in this unnatural way. 



Nothing is more certain than that a moist climate is indis- 

 pensable for a rapid and luxuriant growth of grass, or that it 

 is impossible to contend, except under great disadvantages, 

 against the adverse influences of climate. Our climate is 

 not favorable to the highest uniform success in grass-farming. 

 We have rainfall enough, taking the year through, as a general 

 rule; but the trouble is a want of a sufficiently uniform dis- 

 tribution of rains. We are liable to droughts almost every 

 summer. Sometimes they occur early in the season, and 

 then they are well-nigh fatal to the best growth of grass. 

 Sometimes they occur later, and then they cut off or greatly 

 reduce our fall feed, and interfere sadly with our plans for 

 laying down to grass, comjDelling us to resort more or less 

 every year to various shifts and expedients to overcome the 

 natural obstacles against which we have to contend. On the 

 other hand, we cannot change or very materially modify our 

 climatical conditions. We are compelled to take tiiem as we 

 find them, and to make the best of them. 



One of the most common expedients to meet the case of a 

 severe drought, and the necessity of extra feed, is the practice 



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