AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE. 187 



pened that the ground previously contained witch grass, which 

 entirely choked out the various varieties of clover. 

 Conclusions: 



1. Where it is positively known that the land is fertile and 

 free from weed seeds, also that the fertilizer used is not con- 

 taminated, grass can be grown with success without a nurse 

 crop. 



2. "Where barn-yard manures are used, or where the soil 

 is not thoroughly cleansed of weeds, the nurse crop is an 

 advantage in that it checks the weedy growth; also, if cut 

 early for hay, as is common in New Hampshire, the grass has 

 more time to develop, usually resulting in a good second crop. 



3. It is but little more work to cut the nurse crop than 

 under ordinary conditions it would be to cut the w^eeds. In 

 the former case the green crop would compensate for the 

 work. 



4. The nurse crop takes nourishment from the soil that 

 might otherwise go to the grass, but nothing is lost, as its 

 value is realized from the crop itself. 



5. Should the largest returns be expected the first season, 

 or in case of a rotation in the earlier years of the rotation, it 

 is better to use the nurse crop, unless the conditions are ideal 

 for sowing grass seed by itself. 



6. AVhen witch grass is present it is practically impossible 

 to get a fair catch of clover without a nurse crop. 



7. From these experiments, taking everything into con- 

 sideration, we believe that for our general New Hampshire 

 conditions it is advisable to use the nurse or protective crop. 



Top-Dressing Grass Lands. 



In the spring of 1897 an experiment was carried on in top- 

 dressing a field that apparently was about run out. The 

 yield of hay would but pay for the labor. Two one-acre plots 

 were selected, and one was dressed in the spring with the fol- 

 lowing mixture of fertilizers, — 100 pounds of nitrate of soda, 

 100 pounds of dissolved bone black, and 50 pounds of muri- 

 ate of potash. The other was utilized as a check. 



