No. 4.] MAXURIAL PROBLEMS. 195 



are right, although they are at extremes. Stniwlierrics will 

 succeed on soil somewhat acid. Professor Brooks's soil I 

 think was less acid than that of Mr. Thayer. ProtVssor 

 Brooks probabl}^ })ut on more lime than he did, and he may 

 have made his soil alkaline, and uiisuited to the strawberry 

 })lant ; and the other gentleman put on 2 quarts of lime on a 

 piece 10 feet square, and his soil was acid, although not so 

 bad as before, and by reducing the acid he has made it 

 more favorable to strawberry plants. Some plants will 

 endure even more acid. When we talk about the action of 

 lime, we have to take into account the degree of soil acidity. 



Question. Can you give us any feasible way of renovat- 

 ing or renewing pasture land Avhich has not been fertilized 

 for fifty or seventy-five 3 ears ? 



Dr. AVheeler. I think if you would top-dress the land 

 with the same formula which I have given you, substituting 

 basic slag meal for acid phosphate, and putting some double 

 sulfate of potash or ashes in place of muriate of potash, it 

 would be good. For this I should want to use wood ashes. 

 If I used the wood ashes, I mio-ht not need to use basic slao- 

 meal, the idea of both being to correct any acidity. If you 

 find the soil not acid, I should recommend the top-dressing. 

 This last year, when we were very short of grass in the 

 pastures, a similar top-dressing was applied to the grass 

 fields, and you would be surprised to see how the grass came 

 up, while the other pastures not top-dressed were very poor. 

 There was a certain period in the spring, when, as you know, 

 — or as we know in Rhode Island, — there was a ^reat 

 dearth of feed ; and I believe the matter of top-dressing 

 pasture land is something that ought to be attended to, and 

 may be attended by decided profit, particularly where the 

 milk is disposed of at a good price. 



Question. Do I understand this is done without re-seed- 

 inj;? 



Dr. Wheeler. Yes. In regard to top-dressing, I would 

 say the success depends on sowing it pretty early in the 

 spring, from the 15th to the 25th of April, and seldom as 

 late as the 1st of May in our section, and it probably would 



