96 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



would not do it. I was not alone in the experiment. I can cite 

 many instances where it has been tried. We consider it the 

 greatest nuisance we have. We prefer Canada thistles, 

 altogether, to these things. 



Mr. Perkins. — There are two species of plants in our vicinity 

 that we call " hardhack," but they are dissimilar in their blos- 

 soms. The plant alluded to here is neither of these two kinds, 

 but is a plant that you will see growing in Lee, Lenox, Stock- 

 bridge, Lanesborough, and Pittsficld, on moist land. It grows 

 up in a bush, and has yellow blossoms, with a leaf something 

 like that of the sweet fern, in shape. 



Mr. Clement. — We had some of the Canada thistles in our 

 pastures, and I felt considerably annoyed, for fear they would 

 increase upon me, and set the men to cutting them off with the 

 hoe, just below the surface, so as to be sure to get all the 

 leaves out of the way. By adopting this method, we, in one 

 season, very nearly eradicated them. 



J. M. Crafts, of Whately. — I was particularly struck with 

 the remark made by my friend, Mr. Stebbins, in reference to 

 certain pasture lands upon which ashes would do no good. I 

 don't know but it is so ; but I have never yet seen land that 

 * could not be improved by ashes. It is true that some soils may 

 contain potash to such an extent that mineral elements will not 

 benefit them so extensively or so readily as others ; but when a 

 piece of land is denuded of all vegetation, from the very fact 

 that the mineral elements have been exhausted, it shows a 

 strange kind of logic to me, to say that they cannot be imjjroved 

 by the application of those same elements. 



A question has been raised about eradicating black moss. I 

 live in a neighborhood where there is an abundance of it. The 

 land is cold and wet, and the consequence is that black moss is 

 a great trouble to us. Now, as I have been engaged in the 

 manufacture of pottery ware, I have had occasion to notice the 

 effects of clay upon it. Dr. Hartwell said the way to eradicate 

 black moss was by the use of manures. Now, we cannot afford 

 to do any such thing. Where we grow tobacco for a living, to 

 use manure upon our pastures would be entirely out of the 

 question. Now, in digging the clay from the ground, it gets 

 scattered over a portion of the old pasture that is covered by a 

 complete mass of black moss ; and I have noticed that there the 



