64 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



annual yield of fodder upon large tracts of lands but ill suited for 

 a permanent cultivation of grasses , — the main reliance of fodder 

 production at the time. 



A serious falling off in the annual yield of pastures and meadows 

 was followed usually by a gradual reduction in farm live stocl^;, 

 which in turn caused a falling off in the principal home resource 

 of manurial matter. 



This chapter in the history of farm management has repeated 

 itself in most countries. The unsatisfactory results of that system 

 of farming finds still an abundant illustration in the present ex- 

 hausted condition of a comparatively large area of farm lauds iu 

 New England. 



Cai'eful investigations carried on during the past fifty years for 

 the particular benefit of agriculture have not only been instrumental 

 in recognizing and pointing out the principal causes of an almost 

 universal periodical decline of the original fertility of farm lands, 

 but have also materially assisted by field experiments and otherwise 

 in introducing efficient remedies to arrest the noted decline in the 

 annual yield of our most prominent farm crops. 



As a scanty supply of manurial matter, due to a serious falling 

 off of one of the principal fodder crops, grasses, was found to be 

 one of the chief causes of less remunerative crops, and thus indi- 

 rectly has proved to be the main cause of an increase in the cost 

 of the products of the animal industry of the farm, milk and meat, 

 it is but natural that the remedies devised should include, as one 

 of the foremost recommendations, a more liberal production of nu- 

 tritious fodder crops. 



The soundness of this atlvice is to-day fully demonstrated in the 

 most successful agricultural regions of the world. An intensive 

 system of cultivation has replaced iu those localities the extensive 

 one of preceding periods ; although the area under cultivation for 

 the production of general farm crops has been reduced, the total 

 value of the products of the farm has increased materially in con- 

 sequence of a more liberal cultivation of reputed fodder crops. The 

 change has been gradual and the results are highly satisfactory. 



Viewing our own present condition^ we notice that well-paying 

 grass land, good natural meadows and rich and extensive pastures 

 are rather an exception than the rule. The benefits derived from 

 indifferently yielding natural pastures are often more apparent 

 than real; the low cost of the production of the fodder is fre- 

 quently in a large degree set off by a mere chance distribution of 

 the manure produced. 



A continued cultivation of but few crops upon the same land, 

 without a liberal, rational system of manuring, has caused iu many 



