172 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ificd by the introduction of some valuable broad-leaved 

 herbaceous fodder plant, — for instance, certain varieties of 

 clover, as red clover (^Trifolium pratense) and white clover 

 {Trifolium repens), for the purpose of shading the surface, 

 and thereby economizing existing sources of moisture. 



After having accomplished all the good results that an 

 efficient use of these means is capable of securing, much 

 benefit may still be derived from a study of the character 

 and the comparative fodder value of the plants which pros- 

 per under existing circumstances. To favor an increase of 

 the best of them, by seeding and otherwise, tends to improve, 

 materially, the chances for more satisfactory crops. The 

 same rule works well in the case of somewhat dry grass 

 lands. 



Dry grass lands, which are in an exceptional degree in- 

 clined to a spontaneous overgrowing by an inferior class of 

 fodder plants and weeds, if at all fit for a more thorough 

 system of cultivation, ought to be turned by the plough and 

 subsequently planted with some hoed crop, to kill off the 

 foul growth and to improve the physical and chemical con- 

 dition of the soil. These lands prove, in many instances, 

 ultimately a far better investment when used for the raising 

 of other farm crops than grasses. 



Next in importance to a certain degree of natural adapta- 

 tion of the soil for a successful and remunerative production 

 of grasses, is the presence of a sufficient amount of available, 

 suitable plant food. 



No one definite rule of manuring grass lands can be laid 

 down in siijht of the diverse conditions of existing meadoAVS 

 and pastures, as well as of the special requirements in that 

 direction of lands designed for the cultivation of grasses, be- 

 yond the general advice, to provide for those soil constitu- 

 ents in particular which the grasses in exceptionally large 

 proportions abstract, and of w^hich the soil of the locality 

 contains, comparatively speaking, but a limited amount. 



We have learned how to ascertain pretty closely the char- 

 acter and the approximate amount of the soil plant food 

 which a given amount of a crop abstracts, — the larger the 

 crop, the heavier the loss to the soil. A few numerical 

 statements regarding the grass crop may show in what direc- 



