222 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 



In a case which I have in mind, a very poor, worn out grass 

 lot, was top-dressed with fourteen ordinary cart loads of good 

 stable manure to the acre. The quantity of grass was increased 

 fourfold. Clover and Timothy came in as luxuriantly as on 

 any new laid piece. If the top-dressing were repeated once in 

 five or six years, there would be no danger of exhaustion, thongli 

 there would be an advantage in loosening the earth with the 

 plough. But the use of stable manure should be confined 

 mostly to mowing land. On closely fed pastures it would be 

 Injudicious, from its exposure to the sun. On these, ashes or 

 plaster would be better. 



An Essex county farmer says : " Peruvian guano, mixed 

 with loam, is unquestionably the best fnanurc for top-dressing 

 that can be found. Ashes are very good for lands that arc liable 

 to be washed by the fall and early spring rains. I should think 

 that the spring would be the best time to spread it, but on lands 

 not so situated the fall would be more proper. In the latter 

 case the manure would be entirely mixed in around the roots of 

 the grass, and all the strength of the manure would remain in 

 the ground." 



An experienced and intelligent practical farmer, of Bristol 

 county, says : " I top-dress moist mowing lands in winter or 

 early spring, with eight or ten loads of fine manure, or with 

 about 300 lbs. of guano, mixing the guano with twice its bulk 

 of dry sand moistened with water containing about two ounces 

 of sulphuric acid in solution to the gallon of water." 



No farm should be managed without a compost heap, since it 

 may be so made as to form an extremely valuable article for 

 top-dressing. A quantity of meadow mud should be dug out in 

 the autumn for this special purpose. Two cords of peat mud, 

 added to one cord of good stable manure, will make, in the esti- 

 mation of many practical farmers, a compost of three cords of 

 valuable manure. This has been tried repeatedly, and is con- 

 stantly done by those ambitious to excel in farming. To this 

 compost heap should be added, from time to time, all tlie animal 

 and vegetable matter adapted to ferment and enrich the soil. 

 Woollen rags, the remains of fish, the blood and flesh of animals? 

 the hair of animals, all these make an exceedingly rich manure. 

 A most intelligent gentleman connected with a wool factory, 

 informs me that a cord of matter collected at the establishment, 



