94 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



White birch, pitch pine, and white pine grow there. I have in 

 my mind now a piece of land that in 1833 was sold for five dol- 

 lars an acre. Two years ago, I offered a man seventy-five 

 dollars for an acre of it, which was mostly white pine, and he 

 thought it was worth more. Last week, a piece of tliis land was 

 sold for thirty dollars an acre, on which, since I was twenty 

 years old, I have seen rye growing. I suggested that the pur- 

 chaser paid rather a high price for it, but was told that he got 

 it cheap. That is covered with pitch pine and white birch, which 

 are worth six dollars a cord. "We have come to the conclusion 

 that that kind of land isn't worth anything for pasture, espe- 

 cially around certain localities, where our fences " winter-kill " 

 badly. 



A. F. Adams, of Fitchburg. — I have tried sowing new land 

 for feed, in the spring and in the fall, and I like spring sowing 

 much the best. I plough quite late, after I have done my fall 

 work, and let it lie until about the middle of June. Then I put 

 on a few loads of compost, and sow it with winter rye — about 

 two bushels to the acre — and grass seed. It then comes into 

 feed in August, when our pastures are most apt to fail, and 

 when we need the feed much more than we do in the spring. 



Mr. Homer, — I would suggest to Mr. Stebbins that he try 

 buckwheat on this land that has been exhausted with rye. Let 

 him raise it for twenty years, and if he don't have as good a 

 crop the twentieth year as he got the first, I shouldn't be willing 

 to give much for his land. There will be a very nutritious crop 

 of redtop following the buckwheat. I have a piece that has 

 averaged me over ten bushels to the acre. I have a pasture 

 containing altogether some fifty acres. There is some of the 

 cowbane on it, and a little high laurel and hardback ; but 

 wherever I have tried plaster, it has killed out those things. I 

 will say, in I'Cgard to plaster, that the white, soft plaster is not 

 worth much for me. Give me the strongest scented plaster. 

 It may be the heaviest, but it will pay the best. Wherever you 

 can produce white clover, if you will put on plenty of plaster, 

 you can have good pastures. 



Mr. Stebbins. — I would like to inquire if there is any way to 

 kill out moss without ploughing? 



Dr. Hartwell. — Compost manure or horse manure will kill 

 it. It is an expensive way, but that will do it, and bring in 



