84 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



« 



Leander Wetherell, of Boston. — I simply wish to say that I 

 had the pleasure, this past autumn, of going over the pastures 

 Mr. Anderson has spoken of, and the results which he has stated 

 seem to have been fully realized ; for I have not been on any 

 pastures that I was so well pleased with since I was on the Ken- 

 tucky blue-grass pastures, of which his reminded me. I was 

 there about the first of October, and they were then covered 

 with an excellent crop of grass, notwithstanding the dryness of 

 the past season. Mr. Anderson stated to me one fact, which he 

 has not. mentioned here, and that is, that in the spring he goes 

 over the pastures and beats the droppings of the animals to 

 pieces, so that they are scattered over the surface of the ground. 

 That is a labor to which but few farmers would subject them- 

 selves. 



Now that I am up, I would add that plaster will recuperate 

 pastures where it will work. I asked a gentleman, who lives in 

 the town of Hardwick, in the county of Worcester, where the 

 pastures are very good, how they compared with what they were 

 twenty-five years ago. " Well," said he, " I can say that they 

 are better ; that these dairy pastures will keep more stock now 

 than twenty-five years ago." This, 1 suppose, is explained by 

 the fact that plaster works well on those pastures ; and having 

 been applied occasionally it has kept them in this growing and 

 luxuriant condition. But then, there are many acres of pasture 

 in this Commonwealth, where j^laster will produce no more 

 effect than so much sand sown upon the surface. These pastures 

 must be recuperated in some other way. I agree fully in the 

 remark made by Mr. Anderson, that pasture land that can be 

 depended on for grass is better and more enduring if it has 

 never been ploughed or harrowed, than land that has been 

 broken up. I have observed an illustration of this on a hill in 

 the east part of Ware, where the land was tilled, and bore 

 excellent crops ; afterwards, it was seeded down and turned to 

 pasturage ; and that pasture is now a great deal inferior to a 

 pasture right by its side, that never has been ploughed, I 

 believe that the same is true with regard to mowing lands. I 

 consider land that is in a condition to produce grass naturally, 

 and that has never been ploughed, the most profitable mowing 

 land, as the other is the most profitable pasture land. 



