SECRETARY'S REPORT. 101 



Mr. Perkins. — There arc no Canada thistles in my pastures, 

 and I cannot say how that is ; but I know tliat if sheep arc 

 driven through a lot where there arc Canada thistles, they will 

 nip off the blossoms as they go along. 



The Chairman. — I thin-k it must be apparent that the 

 methods of improving pasture land differ in different localities, 

 and that what is good for one place is not good for another. 

 Mr. Anderson has presented his method, which seems to have 

 been satisfactory so far as his farm is concerned ; and others 

 have presented theirs. Possibly the best view to take of it 

 would be that every man must be governed by the nature of the 

 land which he owns. I have seen pasture lands upon which 

 there was no grass, ploughed deep, dressed with three or four 

 hundred pounds of bone manure to the acre, and seeded pretty 

 successfully — not very ; it was a long time before the sod was 

 made satisfactory to the cattle. I have seen a piece of high 

 pasture land restored by simply hauling upon it the muck from 

 an adjoining mud-hole. I have seen a piece of clay land, where 

 grass did not grow at all, brought into a most luxuriant growth 

 of herdsgrass and redtop, by simply carting sand upon it, to the 

 depth of two or three inches, and leaving it to the action of the 

 frosts, the rains and the heat. It has occurred to me that, 

 possibly, we had better, in the first place, adopt Mr. Anderson's 

 rule, and not interfere with the grasses already growing in our 

 pastures. You cannot put any one grass, or two grasses, or 

 three grasses, into the best pasture land, that will entirely satisfy 

 the cattle, the sheep and the horses that feed upoh it ; they 

 want a hundred different varieties, some of them more. There- 

 fore I think it would be well to adopt the rule not to interfere 

 with the natural growth of grasses upon the piece of pasture 

 land which you intend to renovate. Having laid down that 

 rule, you will then, of course, remove all noxious weeds and 

 shrubs. That must be done in one way in one place, and in 

 another place in another way. There is no doubt that constant 

 cutting will destroy these things. After having accomplished 

 that, you will then proceed to apply to that land whatever is 

 necessary for its renovation. I have often thought that some 

 sort of an instrument might be invented, which would run 

 under the sod — a sort of plough that would open and lighten 

 the soil without destroying the sod at all. I have often seen a 



