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mer to mow but they usually depasture it. In fact meadows are put to 

 their severest trials after they are mowed in June or July in consequence 

 of the dry, hot weather which supervenes. It is best not to apply stable 

 manure during the continuance of hot, dry weather for such manure has 

 the effect of making the meadow still dryer and of attracting a number of 

 insects that cover and feed upon the small green blades. The best treat- 

 ment after mowing is to top-dress with about 100 pounds per acre of the 

 nitrate of soda. This preserves the verdure of the grass. In two or 

 three weeks an application of an equal quantity of bone meal or the super- 

 phosphate of lime should be added. Some ammonia in the form of sul- 

 phate will have a beneficial eflfect. Where there is clover gypsum may 

 always be applied with good results. After the fall rains begin stable 

 manure should be applied freely. It is the best of all manures, on our 

 soils, for grass lands. 



Baron Lawes writing in 1858 thought that "a dressing of dung once 

 in five years with two hundred weight of the nitrate of soda each year for 

 the other four years" was the very best manure that can be used. Dr. 

 Voelcker was of the opinion that good barnyard manure is "the most 

 efficacious and economical manure both for seeds (of clover) and per- 

 manent pasture." The effect of bone dust on meadow lands is not 

 thought to be as great as on pasture lands. "Bone meal is usually wasted 

 wlien applied on co'd clay "^oil." Dr. Voelcker also snys: "unfortunately 

 the application of artificial manures to permanent pastures is often dis- 

 appointing in an economical point of view. As a rule, no artificial 

 manure gives so favorable a return as good farmyard manure, and I can- 

 not help thinking that it would be more profitable for a farmer to apply 

 the larger portion of his yard manure rather to his pasture land than to 

 the arable land; for there is no difficulty in growing roots and cereal 

 crops economically with artificial manures." 



A writer in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1869 

 says: "After much experience, I think manuring grass lands is one of the 

 worst subjects to treat. I have seen bones applied and produce no good 

 whatever; and on the other hand, I have seen them used with immense 

 advantage. I have seen guano produce a splendid crop, while the year 

 following the crop has been worse than before guano was applied. It is 

 impossible to give any definite rules without knowing the kind of land to 

 be manured, and other attendant circumstances. Still, money judiciously 

 laid out in the improvement of grass land brings in a more certain return 

 than when expended in the growth of wheat." 



In the manuring of clover fields gypsum will greatly increase the for- 

 age but not the seed. Superphosphate of lime, nitrate of potash and stable 

 manure are much better for increasing the yield of seed and should be 

 applied to the clover after the first crop has been cut off for hay or de- 

 pastured by stock. All manures will, as a general proposition, so in- 

 crease the strength and vitality of the better grasses as to diminish the 

 weeds. This may be seen by the application of stable manure to a broom 

 sedge field- the broom sedge disappears and the better grasses assert their 

 sway. 



In some famous experiments conducted by Lawes at Rothamsted in 



