No. 4.] GRASS AND CLOVER. 151 



sprout and grow every year, and as fast as they do so, I 

 take them out ; but I don't expect to live long enough to 

 see all of them grow." If they live that length of time in 

 water, you ma}' judge what they might do in the soil. 



Mr. E. P. Williams (of Ashtield). My experience is, I 

 don't get much until the second year. The second year 

 seems to be a good cut for hay and clover both, and after 

 that I don't see much alsike clover, but the red clover up on 

 the hills comes up itself; you will see it all over the fields 

 one year, and the next year hardly any. 



Professor Brooks. When do you sow your clover seeds? 



Mr. Williams. Usually in August. 



Professor Brooks. That is about the time we sow them, 

 but we get much more the first year than the second. 



Mr. Williams. I know Mr. Wilson sowed alsike clover 

 a little earlier than the rest of us, so the bees could gather 

 the honey, but he said himself he didn't get any honey until 

 the second yeav ; I don't know why, but the second year it 

 came up and he had a large crop. 



Mr. E. P. Parmenter (of Springfield). The experience 

 I had in clover is this. The alsike on the elevations at which 

 we have grown it will run out in two years ; the third year 

 there would be a sprinkling of the red clover ; it would be 

 principally in bunches, not so you could call it a crop, but 

 while the alsike was entirely gone, the red clover would still 

 survive for another year or two in a limited way. 



Professor Hurd. There is one point I am glad Professor 

 Brooks brought out ; that is, this matter of a permanent 

 meadow. I didn't mean to say that we have no lands out- 

 side of those we have in four-year or five-year rotation, be- 

 cause we have ; Init I was driving at this : in our State the 

 common practice is to cut hay each year, and put very little 

 or nothing in the way of fertilizers or manure on those mead- 

 ows. We have a piece of about 8 acres on our campus, 

 much the same as Professor Brooks speaks of, which, for 

 appearance sake, we keep in grass (for about ten years now) 

 with top-dressing of fertilizers. Instead of robbing the land 

 all the time, I want to recommend putting back something 

 in the shape of fertilizers, which we do right along. If I 



