IXCKEASING THE GraSS CllOr. 301 



That grass is the most important and vahiablc of the 

 crops grown in Vermont, and that it ouglit to bo increased 

 instead of being allowed to decrease, I think all -will admit 

 without debate. Grass is king in Vermont. His most pow- 

 erful enemy is the plow, though in isolated cases the plow is 

 Lis ally. 



Eight years ago, I bought the farm where I now live. 

 Nearly the whole farm had been plowed. Potatoes had been 

 raised for the starch factories, grain had been sold, etc. The 

 mowino; Held, containing fiftv-five acres at the time of the 

 purchase, produced hay of very poor quality, sufficient only 

 to winter eiofht cows. 



At present about one-third of the field is fenced off with 

 ^he pasture ; the remainder cuts hay and rowen enough of 

 good quality to winter twenty-five cows. And, compara- 

 tively, the improvement has but just commenced. Yet per- 

 haps the hardest struggle is past, as the crop begins to 

 breathe freely, and is, at least, in a self sustaining condition. 

 And this result, although so insignificant when compared 

 with what Professor Spaulding and many others have done, 

 has been accomplished without the aid of a single dollar's 

 worth of commercial or foreign fertilizers. The next spring 

 after buying the farm, I raised up the old barns, shoveled 

 out the dirt, which was saturated with tlie drainings of the 

 stables and yard ; made a cellar under the stable and sup- 

 plied it with muck ; dug the chip dirt out of the dooryard 

 and woodshed ; removed the dirt where slops had been 

 thrown and sink spout had drained, and supplied its place 

 with muck and fresh cartli. And this dii>;Lring out and 

 replenishing was coatinujd around every old shell of a build- 



