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with moss, we recommend harrowing it in the spring, or 

 warm days in winter, when the frost is out of the surface 

 from one to two inches, and sowing grass seed. We prefer 

 the harrow rather than the plough for land that is to remain 

 in pasture, believing that nature put the soil right side up 

 for grazing. 



In the south-eastern part of the' county, the pastures 

 are injured by a weed that is not found to much 

 extent in other parts. We refer to woodwaxen, a plant 

 which will have the sole occupancy of the land wherever it 

 gains a foothold. W^e know not what resemblance this 

 plant may have to the bush which the Oriental shepherd 

 saw burning in his pasture on Mount Horeb, but we know 

 that this is often burned, but not destroyed. 



Another method for improving dry, gravelly land for 

 pasture, is by raising the locust tree. This, unlike most 

 other trees, improves the quality of the grass, and increases 

 the quantity. A strong illustration of the benefit of this 

 tree upon pasture land may be seen upon the farm of John 

 Nichols, in Dan vers. 



But what shall we do with our cold, rocky, bushy pastures? 

 To improve them by ploughing will often cost more than 

 they will sell for when reclaimed; yet the farmer maybe so 

 situated that it may be well for him to reclaim them. We 

 think, however, that there is much land in this county, that 

 is now known by the name of pasture, that might be more 

 profitably used as woodland. Where the white pine and 

 the birch grow up spontaneously, they will in a few years 

 destroy the small bushes, and when the wood is fit to cut, 

 we shall have a pasture which nature has renovated. 



In the pastures to which the attention of the Committee 

 has been called, plaster has been used as the means for im- 

 proving them. It becomes an interesting inquiry to know 

 in what parts of the county, and on what kind of soils, 

 plaster can be profitably used. Both of the pastureswhich we 



