1911.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 19 



begun ill one of these j^astures in the noi'tli(M-n part of the town 

 of Amherst, on the farm of Herbert S. Dickinson. The portion 

 of the pasture selected was level and entirely free from brush 

 and stones. It is land which was under cultivation a con- 

 siderable number of years ago. The soil is made up princi- 

 pally of the finest grades of sand and silt, and is quite reten- 

 tive of moisture. The amount of feed produced in recent years 

 had been small, and the pasture presented the characteristics 

 above referred to in their most typical development. 



Four plots of equal area in a part of the pasture, seemingly 

 of very even quality, were laid off. Plots 1 and o received an 

 application of basic slag meal and low-grade sulfate of potash 

 (sulfate of potash-magnesia), mixed together before spreading 

 at the following rates per acre : basic slag meal, 500 pounds ; 

 low-grade sulfate of potash, 300 pounds. Plots 2 and 4 were 

 left untreated. The materials referred to were applied in the 

 early spring. Before the end of the first season there was a 

 marked difference in the character of the growth upon the 

 fertilized and unfertilized plots. On the former, white clover 

 was found to be coming in, while the grasses showed a much 

 greener color and more vigorous growth. 



The pasture in which these plots lay was heavily stocked with 

 milch cows throughout the summer, and it was observed that 

 they grazed .upon the top-dressed plots a much larger propor- 

 tion of the time than on the untreated plots, or the other 

 jiortions of the pasture. 



In the spring of 1910 the top-dressing of plots 1 and 3 was 

 repeated. The differences of the previous season which have 

 just been referred to became still more marked, and the pref- 

 erence of the cows for the forage produced on these plots be- 

 came yet more noticeable. As a result of the superior charac- 

 ter of the forage produced on the top-dressed plots, and the 

 preference of the cows for feeding upon them, they were kept 

 much more closely grazed throughout the entire season, and 

 were especially far more closely grazed late into the autumn 

 than is favorable to the best development. It is fair to su|> 

 pose, therefore, that the fertilizers applied would have produced 

 jef more marked effects under more favorable conditions. In 



