TREATMENT OF GRASS-LANDS. 211 



quence. If the season is very moist, sometimes you will see 

 a little benefit the Urst year, but you will see the effect for 

 ten years. I have used twenty-five bushels of unleached 

 ashes to the acre. I would not give for leached ashes ten 

 cents a bushel, when I would give for unleached ashes forty 

 cents a bushel ; there is all that difference between them. If 

 you put twenty-five bushels on an acre, it will last you ten 

 years, and produce an abundance of most excellent feed. 

 There is nothing so valuable for pasture-lands, but the great 

 difficulty is to obtain ashes. It is almost impossible, because 

 the soapmen come round and pick up the ashes. 



In regard to the application of water and mud or clay, of 

 which Mr. Lewis spoke, let me say that, I do not know but 

 it will answer for Herkimer County, but I really think, in my 

 section, it w^ould not be of much value. But I know that if 

 you spread the sub-soil which has lain three feet deep on top 

 of your light lands, white-clover will come in in three years ; 

 and the application of manure will do more good, and the 

 more manure you put on the more good it will do. 



Mr. Lewis. I was afraid my friend there misunderstood 

 me. I don't want to be understood as saying that manure 

 does not agree with my land ; it agrees with it first-rate. I 

 find that manure agrees with grass-land, but I can use other 

 things there, and have my manure to use on my crops. That 

 is all there is about it. You can use clay, you can use sand, 

 you can use thorough underdraining, which is equal to any 

 kind of manure, where the land needs it ; you can use swamp 

 mud, and you will have your manure to use besides. But 

 what I wanted to remark principally was, that manure agrees 

 with my land, as it does with his. 



Dr. Sturtevant, of Framingham. I would like to ask 

 Mr. Fay whether he feeds his mowing-lands. 



Mr. Fay. I never want to, if I can get along without it. 

 Sometimes, in dry seasons, I am obliged to turn my cattle in 

 to feed on the second croj). I do it against my own judg- 

 ment, but I do it once in a while. 



Dr. Sturtevant. I think that is a very important point. 

 My experience leads me to question the advantage of feeding 

 mowing-lands close in autumn. On our Massachusetts soils, 

 underlaid with gravel, the soaking of the spring rains does 



