110 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



am sure that you cannot be satisfied with any such result. 

 Remember, also, that, to make even this poor showing, many 

 acres of grassland, producing from three to five tons of hay 

 per acre, are reckoned in ; so that you can see that some of 

 those acres have got to average very low. You will all agree 

 with me that it is desirable to increase this crop. There will 

 be no difference of opinion, certainly, about that. 



Now, what would be a satisfactory crop throughout the 

 State ? No matter what amount we get to the acre, we would 

 be better satisfied if we got a little more, but I assume that 

 three tons to the acre would be a satisfactory crop ; that is, 

 two tons to the first crop, and one ton to the second, with a 

 reasonable chance of getting more than that the first two or 

 three years after the land is newly seeded. 



To accomplish that, high cultivation is necessary. High 

 cultivation is true economy, and should result in not less 

 than three tons to the acre on good grassland. I have used 

 the term " good grassland ; " but perliaps, to talk understand- 

 ingly about this matter, I ought to give you my idea of what 

 good grassland is. I assume that any land in Massachusetts, 

 with reasonably good soil, — that is, not dry enough to suf- 

 fer from a light drought, not wet enough to grow the wild 

 grasses and rushes, — is good grassland. How should such 

 land as that be made to produce better crops ? Let me say, 

 before I go into that, that some of the grasslands in the 

 State are undoubtedly lands that have been naturally too 

 wet to produce grass ; but, by draining, the water has been 

 taken off, and more room given for the extension of the 

 roots by the very fact of lowering the water-table, and 

 this draining has, with proper cultivation, exterminated the 

 water-grasses. You have, then, a soil that is as good as any, 

 to produce grass on. You have made a new piece of land of 

 it : you have taken a worthless piece of land, and, by drain- 

 ing and a little manuring, you have made it good mowing- 

 land. Now, how should it be managed to produce better 

 crops ? I have about twenty-five acres of grassland. Some 

 of you will say to me, "Well, you have got better grassland 

 than some other people." I allude to that, because that re- 

 mark has been made to me often. Wlien my father bought 

 the farm which I now occupy, a ton of English hay was not 

 produced on the place ; and the grassland that I use now 



