LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 107 



any now in common use. The leading seedsmen keep giving advice, but they 

 are interested in making sales. 



The Koyal Agricultural Society employs a consulting botanist to examine 

 samples of seeds offered in market. He has small fees for performing certain 

 work. Seedsmen of England are now advertising to guarantee seeds in accord- 

 ance with the standard fixed by the consulting botanist. This has given the 

 farmers confidence, and has nearly or quite put a stop to "doctoring" seeds. 

 If railroads find it necessary to employ engineers, if trustees think it best to 

 employ a landscape gardener to lay out a park or a cemetery, if builders employ 

 architects, why should not the farmers, at a trifling expense to each, employ a 

 consulting botanist? Farmers think nothing of employing a surveyor to lay 

 out their farm, grade a road or stick the stakes for a ditch or a tile drain. 

 There is a botanist attached to the boards of agriculture in several of the 

 States. In no way could such an official make himself more useful than by 

 testing the seeds sold to farmers in his State. Some States already have 

 experiment stations, and this is one of the kinds of worlc they can do for the 

 farmers. A similar work is already done in case of commercial fertilizers in 

 Connecticut, New Jersey, North (Jarolina, and Ohio. Other States are fol- 

 lowing. This is beneficial to both the seller and the buyer. More fertilizers 

 are sold, because the standard is guaranteed. So it would be with grass seeds. 



In this country but very little care is bestowed on meadows or pastures. No 

 crop gets less attention ; none would respond more quickly to good care. 



Who ever heard of a premium crop of grass? 



By pasturing early and late the tops are kept closely cut down to the ground. 

 The roots are weakened and much injured, and require a longtime to recover. 

 To gain and thrive a grass needs some green leaves as much as a horse needs 

 fresh air and a stomach to digest a liberal supply of food. Pasture should 

 not be allowed to grow very tall and go to flower. 



With reference to the pastures of Maine, Professor Stockbridge would advise 

 as the corner stone to put the improvement in the head of the farmer himself, 

 then all else will follow. 



It has been repeatedly shown that a judicious mixture of several varieties 

 will produce a larger yield than can be obtained where one variety is sown by 

 itself. This is a rule in nature as well as in farming. Many sorts will usually 

 occupy the ground more completely than one sort, and help keep out the 

 weeds. "Every species has some special niche to fill." Animals have their 

 likes and dislikes. A grass may be thrifty, but not very nutritious. It may 

 be native to the country where it grows, but this is no sign that it thrives bet- 

 ter than would a foreign grass. As an illustration, we have only to think of 

 the success of some of our worst weeds, most of which are foreigners. 



There is no one model grass — a general-purpose grass — any more than there 

 is one best kind of horse, sheep, cattle, wheat, corn, potato, or apple. What 

 do you want it for? After this is answered, any one with the requisite knowl- 

 edge can make a selection. 



Some grasses start too slowly in spring, or they are too sensitive to frost or 

 drought, the stems are too woody, the leaves too thin, the tops too short, the 

 aftermath is of no account, or the herbage is bitter or innutritions. Is the 

 grass needed for one year? Then the seeds must be rather large and germin- 

 ate quickly, and soon produce thrifty plants. It is to the advantage of a grass 

 if it seed freelv, if the seeds are large and healthv. 



The success of grasses depends very much on the supply of moisture. 

 Liberal spring rains, with mild weather, make a thrifty growth in meadow or 



