220 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



This is not the time to discuss the ingredients of the compost 

 heap which is adapted for a top-dressing of our meadows. "We 

 will only say that we have found a compost made of muck and 

 leached ashes, in the proportion of six or eight bushels of muck 

 to one of ashes, an excellent fertilizer for grass. The wood- 

 ashes furnish the inorganic food in great variety, while the 

 muck supplies the vegetable matter and renders the soil light 

 and porous, ready to absorb the gases of the air and furnish 

 them to the grasses as they may be demanded. In case the 

 meadows are naturally cold and wet, abounding already in 

 clay or peat, we should substitute, for the basis of the compost 

 heap, sand instead of muck. Sand alone, scattered upon a 

 peaty meadow, has a wonderful effect in warming the land 

 and inducing the growth of sweet, nutritious herbage. Indeed, 

 we have found that meadows, well drained, after they have 

 been mucked for a series of years, are greatly benefited by a 

 top-dressing of sand, or better still by a coating of the alluvial 

 soil which is to be found on the river bank. This alluvium 

 contains not only sand but the disintegrated granules of the 

 various rocks and soils that the river has brought down from 

 miles above. We have used this alluvium lately in the compost 

 designed for top-dressing, and have been much pleased with 

 the result. When it cannot be obtained easily, the wash of the 

 highway or the leaf-mold from the forest answers a good pur- 

 pose. The latter is particularly rich in all the elements of 

 vegetable nutrition, and our forests can well spare some of it 

 for the benefit of the meadows. 



On a clover ley plaster operates most favorably. Spread 

 broadcast early in the spring, at the rate of one hundred pounds 

 to the acre, it increases this leguminous crop greatly. This 

 great result from so small a quantity cannot be attributed solely 

 to the increase of plant-food furnished by the two main elements 

 of plaster, sulphur and lime, although, as clover contains both 

 these elements, they doubtless contribute directly to its nourish- 

 ment. But plaster is also a great absorbent, and its efficiency 

 must in a measure be attributed to its power of retaining the 

 ammonia of the air, and furnishing it to the clover and other 

 plants as they may demand. Plaster alone cannot be relied 

 upon to keep our meadows in heart for a series of years. Those 

 who have seen its magical effects for a year or two, and have 



