150 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of the grass, at least. Latterly I have adopted the plan of 

 turning my stubble over immediately after harvest, put on 

 some kind of fertilizer if I choose, and sow my grass-seed, 

 and I usually have good luck. Last year I had exceedingly 

 bad luck. ^ The drought killed it, and I had to go over it two 

 or three times before I could get a good catch. 



Mr. Whittaker of Needham. If all things were equal 

 in agriculture, then it could be carried on with a square rule, 

 and each one could take home what is said here, and apply it 

 with success in his own farming-operations. But agricul- 

 ture is one of the most unequal things known, for you can 

 scarcely find four square feet of land that are exactly the 

 same as the next four square feet adjoining them : conse- 

 quently, whatever general principles we may learn at these 

 meetings, when we take them away from here, we must 

 modify them according to the circumstances in which they 

 are to be applied, or we shall have to bear failures. Probably 

 that is one of the reasons why there is such an apparent dis- 

 agreement in the operations and in the results of individual 

 farmers. 



One gentleman has spoken of replenishing his pasture by 

 going over it with a fine-tooth harrow. I had a piece of land 

 from which I had cleared off the wood, and burned it over ; 

 and I wanted to make it into a pasture just as cheaply as 

 possible. There was a considerable amount of ashes after the 

 brush had been burned, and I conceived the idea of going over 

 it with a pretty heavy harrow. I put on two horses, and that 

 harrow worked as though it were full of springs. Sometimes 

 it went three feet, sometimes six. I saw it made but very 

 little impression on the soil. I have had my hands worse 

 scratched by my old cat than that harrow scratched the soil, 

 and I did the best I could with it. I put on clover and grass 

 seeds, all I could think of ; but I tell you I could count the 

 seeds when they came up, if I couldn't count them when I 

 put them in. 



I have been greatly interested in raising sheep. I do not 

 care much about the mutton; for no man would ever think of 

 feeding sheep on bushes, to make mutton that any civilized 

 man wants to eat. But there was a good deal in that idea 

 of feeding sheep on cotton-seed-meal ; and there was a good 

 deal in the idea of putting sheep in pastures to destroy 



