FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 113 



It is important that every farmer should carefully 

 examine his low grounds before commencing im- 

 provements, that he may not subject himself to 

 disappointment and loss. It is certainly difficult 

 clearly to describe a meadow which will not, after 

 working, bear good crops of sweet grasses, but I 

 am confident I could point out such, if allowed five 

 minutes' work upon it with a spade. A piece of 

 low land deficient hvpeat, with a superficial clayey 

 covering, overrun with moss or short, matted grass, 

 will not pay for the labor of renovation ; neither 

 will a meadow pay if it is surrounded with a forest 

 which places it in shade half the fiours of the day, 

 no matter what may be the nature of the deposit. 

 A meadow permanently wet, and which cannot be 

 drained, is one upon which labor is usually wholly 

 lost. Any low land open to the air and sunlight, 

 which has a good bottom of peat or black mould, 

 and is raised one foot above the highest water level 

 in the spring, can be converted into a profitable 

 field, yielding abundance of the nutritious grasses. 

 More attention should be bestowed upon such 

 lands, as the hay crop is one of the most impor- 

 tant and profitable produced upon our farms. 



A series of extended and systematic experiments 



have been undertaken upon the farm in connection 



with fields which are elevated and drv, and which 



were unproductive at the time they were com- 



8 



