200 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



period, if that manure lies upon the ground, it is not going 

 tlirough the frost, and as the snow and rain come, and the 

 snow melts, more or less of it becomes soluble and runs off. 

 You may get it in the hollows, but you lose it on the ridges. 

 I do not believe top-dressing is economical except uf)on an 

 open sod. As a general thing, I say, do not top-dress. I 

 will say one thing more about weeds. We have various 

 weeds up there that make their appearance as a substitute 

 for hay, so when I find my hay crop declining in quantity I 

 also find it declining in quality. If you let grass land lie 

 too long anywhere, you will find more or less of wild stock 

 getting in, and that spoils your crop for market hay. 



Question. Did you ever top-dress and follow immedi- 

 ately with a harrow? 



Mr. Walker. No, I never did. My sod is pretty tough, 

 and as I think now, I am inclined to hold my ground on 

 ploughing in. Where I top-dressed I have not had good 

 success. I have top-dressed, and when I came to cut the 

 grass, 1 could not see that it had done any good. I top- 

 dressed once with nitrate of soda, and I thought I was going 

 to get a good crop. My man said that I got less where I 

 put the nitrate of soda than where I did not. I think I did 

 get a little more ; but where I have top-dressed I do not 

 think I have received benefit enough to pay for the dressing. 

 I have a little grass around my door-yard, and I top-dress 

 that, and by putting on enough of it I keep a good sward; 

 but I cannot afi'ord to do that on my grass fields. 



Question. What do you think of using the wheel harrow 

 and working the manure in thoroughly as a substitute for 

 second ploughing? 



j\Ir. Walker. I have tried that, and perhaps you can 

 make it go ; but I find I do not get so thorough a dissemina- 

 tion of the manure, so that a particle of manure comes in 

 contact with every particle of soil, as I do by a fine plough. 

 You know when a woman puts yeast into dough she wants 

 the yeast to go through it to every particle of the mass, 

 otherwise you do not get very good bread. And it is so in 

 manuring land. But so far as I am concerned, I can cover 

 the manure better with a fine plough than with a wheel 

 harrow. 



