GRASSES. 193 



tility of the soil. There is a Flemish proverb, "No 

 grass, no cattle; no cattle, no manui'e; no manure, no 

 crops." Constant pasturage by cattle not otherwise 

 fed may slowly reduce the fertility of the soil. A 

 crop of hay will remove more of the "precious" ele- 

 ments than will the grain of a crop of wheat. Selling 

 hay has not been considered by many, therefore, as 

 good farm practice. Of late years, however, the prac- 

 tice of selling hay has been looked on with more favor, 

 both because it has been relatively more profitable 

 than grain crops, and because it has not been found 

 in practice to be harder on land than selling grain 

 crops. The fact is it is not what a crop takes off the 

 soil but what it leaves in the soil when it is taken off 

 that determines whether it depletes the fertility of the 

 soil. 



Probably there is no way, considering the expense 

 involved, of so profitably manuring land as by top- 

 dressing grass lands. Stable manure has been applied 

 to pasture and to meadows as a top-dressing with 

 good results, applying it lightly, say ten loads per 

 acre. It does not seem to injure materially the pala- 

 tability of the pasture grass. With hay crops, there 

 is danger, if not well spread, of getting the manure 

 raked up with the subsequent crop of hay. 



Fattening animals on pasture, or feeding grain food 

 to milch cows while on pasture, increases the fertility 

 of the soil by returning more to it than is taken from 

 it. Although the manure is not as well distributed as 

 if the land was top-dressed, there is no expense for 

 spreading. 



Experiments have been made by Lawes and Gilbert 

 which show that different kinds of fertilizers favor 



