252 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Experience tells us that a liberal manuring pays better 

 than a scant one ; yet, if we should try to restore to the soil 

 from outside sources a corresponding amount of all the fer- 

 tilizing constituents which the grass crop abstracts, it would 

 make, in most instances, the remunerative production of the 

 hay crop rather an exception than the rule. 



Good economy advises us to manure our lands with a par- 

 ticular 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 sys- 

 tem 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 essen- 

 tial articles of plant food which a satisfactory yield of the 

 contemplated 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 

 existing 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 exception- 

 ally high degree by the inherent resources of plant food of 

 the soil engaged in their production and of the atmosphere. 

 They are for this reason less exacting, as fiir as an additional 

 supply of plant food is concerned ; and they can be raised 

 upon a naturally good soil, fit for grass production, at a less 

 expense for manure than the majority of general farm crops. 

 This fact, however, ought not to lead to the belief that ma- 

 nuring grass lands is not profitable in the majority of cases ; 

 for permanent grass lands, meadows and pastures which pro- 

 duce to-day remunerative crops without the assistance of 

 manurial matter of some kind or other from outside sources 

 are rather the exception than the rule. The unsatisfactory 



