296 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and the result had been to drive out the inferior grasses and to 

 bring in the orchard grass so abundantly as to lead to the con- 

 clusion that all other grasses would be supplanted by this gross 

 feeder. Other equally instructive plots serve to show that the 

 cheapest mode of improving poor grass lands and to lead in the 

 richer grasses, is to apply different kinds of manures, each 

 particular soil, of course, requiring some specific manure 

 adapted to its wants. Indeed, it is probable that we shall soon 

 be able to tell, with the help of botanical and chemical knowl- 

 edge, not only in what respect grass lands are defective, but 

 what kinds of materials they may require to remedy the defect. 

 The change effected by the different kinds of manuring is quite 

 astonishing, and this change is strikingly perceptible. 



Besides the experiments with grasses, similar ones are being 

 carried on with wheat, barley and other crops. On one of the 

 plots of wheat, which has grown the same crop for twenty 

 years in succession, the yield this year was greater than ever, 

 showing that by proper manuring this crop may be grown year 

 after year on the same land, if we understand how to treat it. 



A well-conducted laboratory is connected with the estate. 

 We were shown over this as well as over the other parts of the 

 establishment, and were well satisfied that no enterprise of the 

 kind promises so much of value and importance as this to the 

 agricultural community of England and America. 



There are many other subjects to which I should be glad to 

 allude had not this account already grown to a wearisome 

 length. I trust that the observations I have been able to make 

 as the result of a second trip to Europe, will not be wholly 

 without their value and interest for those into whose hands 

 they may happen to fall. 



CHARLES L. FLINT, 



Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture. 



Boston, January 27, 1864. 



