188 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



of the grass plants, which were restored only by reseeding.* 

 While good grass cannot grow in water, it cannot grow 

 without a full and constant supply of it. 



Good Seed. 



My attention was called, some years ago, by a valuable 

 member of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, the late 

 Capt. John B. Moore, to the great importance of using 

 good seed in farming. A moment's reflection will call to 

 mind the fact that a sound acorn contains a perfect oak in 

 embryo, awaiting expansion in the ground and air. It is 

 also just as true that the maize kernel and the grass seed 

 inclose the undeveloped stems and leaves of those plants. 

 If the seed be withered, feeble or imperfectly developed, 

 it will surely transmit its own constitutional imperfections to 

 the crop which springs from it ; and it is just as reasonable 

 to expect a herd of choice cattle from a collection of scrub 

 calves, as to expect satisfactory vegetation from imperfect 

 seeds. The law is general and immutable, that imperfec- 

 tion breeds imperfection just as much in the vegetable as 

 in the physical world. As farmers, we may regard it to 

 our profit, or disregard it to our loss. The amount of 

 poor seed imposed upon the farmers is astonishing to 

 one whose attention has not been called to the subject, 

 and it is one of the causes to which poor crops may often 

 be attributed. 



I desire to emphasize these four points to which I have 

 just called your attention, viz. : Properly made seed-beds, 

 adequate fertilization, suiBciency of moisture and good seeds. 

 They are very important, and cannot be ignored with im- 

 punity. For that reason I desire to leave them in large 

 letters upon the tablets of your memories. 



** The rainfall at Concord, N.H., in 1884, during the grass-growing months of 

 May and June, was as follows : May 5, .28 inch ; May 8, .15 inch ; May 9, .08 inch ; 

 May 10, .02 inch; May 14, .60 inch ; May 16, .17 inch; May 20, .67 inch; May 22, 

 .20 inch; May 23, .30 inch ; May 28, .60 inch; totals, 3.07- June 6, .25 inch; June 

 10, .07 inch; June 12, .24 inch; June 24, .10 inch; June 25, .27 inch; totals, .93. 

 On the first day of June the prospect of a good grass crop was most promising. On 

 the first of July all such anticipations had vanished. The rainfall had been less than 

 an inch dui-ing the former month, and the crop was a fifth less than an average one. 

 Subsequently the sharp drought of July destroyed extensively the roots of the grass 

 plants. 



