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the remunerative production of the hay crop rather an exception 

 than the rule. 



Good economy advises us to manure our lands with a particular 

 reference to special wants. To do this intelligently requires a fair 

 knowledge regarding the following points : — 



1. The general character of the soil, the location of the lands, 

 the history of their former treatment as far as the system of 

 manuring is concerned, as well as the kinds of crops which have 

 been previously raised upon them. 



2. The quality and relative quantity of the various essential 

 articles of plant food which a satisfactory yield of the contem- 

 plated crop requires. 



3. The degree of natural fitness of the plant to be raised to 

 avail itself not only of the atmospheric plant food, but also of the 

 existing inherent amount of plant food in the soil to be used for 

 its production. The development of their root and leaf system, 

 as well as the shorter or longer period of time required for their 

 growth, deserves a most serious consideration in this connection. 



Perennial plants are as a rule better qualified to benefit by ex- 

 isting and inherent resources of plant food of the air and the soil. 

 Our best meadow grasses are perennials. Their long period of 

 growth, supported by a liberal development of leaves and roots, 

 enables them to benefit in an exceptionally high degree by the in- 

 herent resources of plant food of the soil engaged in their produc- 

 tion and of the atmosphere. They are for this reason less exacting, 

 as far as an additional supply of plant food is concerned ; and 

 they can be raised upon a naturally good soil, fit for grass produc- 

 tion, at a less expense for manure than the majority of general 

 farm crops. This fact, however, ought not to lead to the belief 

 that manuring grass lands is not profitable in the majority of 

 cases ; for permanent grass lands, meadows and pastures which 

 produce to-day remunerative crops without the assistance of manu- 

 rial matter of some kind or other from outside sources are rather 

 the exception than the rule. The unsatisfactory condition reported 

 of the majority of our grass lands has to be largely ascribed to 

 the prevalence of an indifferent system of manuring them. 



The cultivation of one and the same crop or class of crops year 

 after year upon the same lauds without some rational mode of 

 manuring cannot fail to change gradually but surely the mechani- 

 cal as well as chemical character of the soil for the better or the 

 worse, as far as that crop or class of crops is concerned, — in the 

 majority of cases for the worse. 



A reliable general fertilizer for grass lands has to be compounded 

 on the same rules which are recognized as rational with reference 



