186 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



as to allow their roots and minutest rootlets to wander 

 through it with facility and in all directions. It must be 

 porous to such a degree as to readily admit to its bosom the 

 warmth and air and moisture of the atmosphere above it. 

 Without these life cannot flourish. Destroy a soil's porosity 

 and you destroy the vitality of every living thing growing 

 upon it. Some one hundred and fifty years ago Mr. Jethro 

 Tull of Enarland asserted that tillas^e was a substitute for 

 manure ; and, although his experiments did not sustain his 

 proposition, they did prove that minute pulverization aided 

 greatly in rendering assimilable the plant food locked up in 

 indigestible compounds in the soil, and consequently di- 

 minished to some extent the amount of fertilization otherwise 

 required. His efibrts, therefore, were not in vain, and his 

 posterity will always owe him a debt of gratitude for the 

 great truth which he unwittingly taught them. 



Fertilization. 



It maybe superfluous, perhaps, to say that adequate fertili- 

 zation is a sine qua non to a good grass crop. You all know 

 and believe it ; and yet, if their fields are a true index of 

 their views, thousands of New England farmers do not agree 

 with you. 



What kind of fertilizer one should use on his grass fields 

 must generally depend upon the circumstances surrounding 

 him. He will, of course, employ the manures of his farm 

 stock, and if these sufiice will need no other. If he does 

 he may be so situated that he can buy stable manure. Per- 

 haps he can obtain wood ashes, and has lands adapted to their 

 use. The spent lime and drench precipitates of a tannery 

 may be within his reach. If he can obtain either of these at 

 remunerative prices they will generally answer fairly his 

 purpose. Whether he can afibrd to use any of the so-called 

 commercial fertilizers, I am unable to say. My own expe- 

 rience with them, in connection with grass, has been limited 

 and not satisfactory. Further experimentation with these is 

 needed, and some of this the grass farmer may as well con- 

 duct for himself upon his own lands, noting with care the 

 nature of his soils and the formulas used. I have strong 

 suspicions that the latter may be economically modified. 



