SUMMER-FALLOWING. . 207 



bone-meal over such lands will produce a wonderful effect. I 

 have also found that much of your grass-land lacks potash, 

 and that the application of about four bushels of wood ashes 

 per acre will effect a marvellous improvement. I have found, 

 too, that in some purts of my own land, where I have top- 

 dressed with manure for several years, a small coating of 

 lime, say twenty bushels to the acre, will produce very bene- 

 ficial results. 



But I would suggest to every farmer here that he divide 

 off a certain piece of his mo^ving or pasture land into alternate 

 strips, leaving one between each two that he lets alone, and 

 try the different fertilizers. You can try one kind on one 

 strip, another on another, and carefully note the result, count 

 the cost, estimate the additional growth, and each man will 

 soon decide for himself what is the best course for him to 

 pursue. I find that a little sprinkling of pure clay without 

 the water, on a light, loamy or sandy soil is sufficient for a 

 long time ; that a little swamp-mud, after it has been exposed 

 to the atmosphere a year, spread over a light soil, is equal to 

 the best top-dressing for grass-lands in the world ; and I find, 

 too, that sand, pure sand, spread over a stiff* clay soil, or on 

 swamp-muck, is an excellent fertilizer for years. But I 

 Avould say to you, that if your grass is unhealthy, if the roots 

 are not vigorous, I know of no way so good as to summer- 

 fallow, if you can do it. If your grass-land is so you can 

 plough it, commence and make a thorough summer-fallow of 

 it. I prefer this to sowing it with grain, crof)ping it, and 

 then re-seeding it. If you are afraid of any loss of plant-food, 

 sow with plaster before you commence, and you can add 

 another coat during the summer. Plough about three times, 

 just as thoroughly as you would for a wheat-field, and then, 

 about the last half of August, seed it down. This summer- 

 fallowing rids your land of every kind of foul stuff' that may 

 have grown in it. It gives you a beautiful clean field, where 

 the grass-seed will catch and grow. It has the benefit of the 

 whole of the sunshine, and it has the whole of the soil to 

 draw upon. It has this plant-food that it obtains from the 

 old turf, the very fertilizer that it wants, and I will assure 

 you that you will do better by adopting this method than you 

 will to plough it up and crop it, and then try to seed it again. 



