120 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



GRASS AND CLOVER PRODUCTION FOR NEW ENGLAND. 



BY PROF, WILLIAM D. HURD, ORONO, ME. 



I have been invited by your Board of Agriculture to speak 

 to you on the subject of " Grass and clover production," — 

 one of the most important topics that we could consider in 

 New England agriculture. When you invite a person from 

 another State to come to your meeting, I realize that you 

 want him to speak to you of what he is doing, what methods 

 he is using in order to make successful work out of what he 

 is attempting to do, rather than to bring to yow the work of 

 others. So, without any apology for frequent reference to 

 our own work, I shall try and relate some of the principles 

 we put into practice in our grass and clover production in 

 Maine ; and in doing this I shall not resort to abstract scien- 

 tific considerations, but shall speak of a few of the things 

 that we have found to he fundamental in our work. Matters 

 of detail, and perhaps methods, too, differ under different 

 conditions ; but there are certain general principles underly- 

 ing the production of these crops that are as true in Massa- 

 chusetts as they are in Maine. Perhaps I shall not l)ring a 

 single new thought or idea to many here present ; but if, by 

 repetition of oft-repeated phrases, we can in any way increase 

 the hay production both in quantity and quality, the mission 

 of this paper will have been accomplished. 



Massachusetts is agriculturally largely a dairy State. The 

 greatest desire of the dairyman is to produce sufficient feed 

 for his dairy herd ; and this might well be his first ambition. 

 In our State I know many are practically making a failure 

 of the dairy business, because somehow they have become 

 possessed with the idea that it is cheaper to buy western feeds 

 than to raise feed for their stock on the farm. I have no 



