128 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



grass land a mixture of nitrate of soda, muriate or sulphate 

 of potash and acid phosphate in the following proportions : 

 not more to each acre than 100 pounds nitrate soda (15 per 

 cent nitrogen), 100 pounds muriate or sulphate of potash 

 (50 per cent potash), 200 pounds acid phosphate (1(3 per 

 cent phosphoric acid) . Some recommend the use of quanti- 

 ties as large as 300 pounds nitrate, 300 pounds muriate, 600 

 pounds acid phos]:)hate to each acre, but at present prices 

 these chemicals would cost about $19. We cannot aflbrd to 

 use in this quantity. 



By this top-dressing we can keep up the production on 

 newly seeded land, and are able to double the hay crop on 

 lands that have been seeded for some time. In fact, the im- 

 provement is so great in old seedings that one of our neigh- 

 bors who secured a bag of this top-dressing to try declared 

 that we had mixed grass seed with the fei-tilizer, — grass grew 

 where apparently there was none. 



6. Cutting at Proper Time and Careful Curing. 



Here again our methods differ somewhat from the common 

 farm practice. In our neighborhood the connnon practice is 

 to let the grass and clover remain standing until dead ripe. 

 I asked one man last year why he did not cut his hay sooner, 

 and he said, "it doesn't take so long to cure it." At that 

 time his grass, what there was of it, was dry and dead. 



On pages 249 and 250 of Snyder's "Chemistry of plant 

 and animal life " figiu'es are given which show tliat clover cut 

 in full bloom contains less crude fibre, contains a maximum 

 amount of protein at that time, that the nutrients of the croj) 

 are more evenly distributed, that the plant contains at this 

 stage a maximum amount of essential oils which impart pala- 

 tability, and that all the nutrients are more digestilile. Beal 

 and other authorities assert that these facts are true of grasses 

 as well as of clovers. 



If our hay crop happens to be a mixed one, there being 

 about equal parts of timothy and red clover, we cut when 

 the clover comes in bloom, because this plant furnishes a 

 large amount of protein. If the crop is almost pure timothy, 

 we cut when this is just nicely in the purple l)loom. When 



