428 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



wastage into the air, and, however carefully done, the injury 

 to roots. Some unwanted seeds or. annuals may be injured, 

 but the conditions that breed or harbor them are left. Fer- 

 tility, and fertility of the right sort, must characterize a 

 good soil. Plants can not make uniform vigorous growth 

 without abundance of proper food. 



How TO FERTILIZE. 



Plant food may be applied in yard manure, and, if accom- 

 panied by new and right seed and with a surface cleared 

 of weeds, will give in thne a good mat of pastm^e grass. 

 The process will fall within common knowledge. As all or 

 approximately all New England farmers are hard taxed to 

 obtain manure enough for their fields, this method may as well 

 be passed by, at the present stage of pasture development. 



Grain feeding on pastures, with partial reference to im- 

 proving them, is an English custom. Sir John B. Lawes 

 has shown by trials that such pastures when turned for staple 

 crops are more productive than those not thus treated. 

 Trials by the writer in Missouri and New Hampshire, and 

 by the experiment stations of Illinois, New York and other 

 States, have not shown a direct compensation in growth or 

 in milk for grain fed to steers or cows during the best 

 months of grazing. It is assumed by many competent 

 authorities that the increased vigor of animals thus fed will 

 in the end place the balance sheet on the right side of grain 

 feeding at pastures. This, I must grant, is an unsolved 

 problem from the purely mathematical side. But when the 

 whole problem is viewed in its relation to soil fertility, or 

 increased yield of crops, and ease of securing daily food, 

 palatability and nutritive value of food and sale value of 

 beef are considered, the balance, it appears, must be on the 

 right side. I say appears, for the whole question is as yet 

 not worked out, and definite figures cannot be given ; but 

 its end may be and should be as follows : on one side, an 

 acre carrying a steer and })roduciiig oOO to 350 pounds 

 growth salable at top prices ; and on the other, four to six 

 acres producing but little over one-half this growth, that 

 must sell in a second or third class market. The process 



