Viewing our own present condition, we notice tliat well-paying 

 grass laud, good natural meadows, and rich and extensive pastures, 

 are rather an exception than the rule. The benefits derived from 

 indifferently yielding natural pastures are often more apparent than 

 real ; the low cost of the production of the fodder is frequently, in a 

 large degree, set off by a mere chance distribution of the manure 

 produced. 



A continued cultivation of but ievf crops upon the same land, 

 without a liberal, rational system of manuring, has caused in many 

 instances a one-sided exhaustion of the land under cultivation. This 

 circumstance has frequently been brought about in a marked degree, 

 by a close rotation of mixed grasses (meadow growth) and of our 

 next main reliance for fodder — the corn — (maize). Both crops 

 require potash and phosphoric acid, in similar proportion (4, potas- 

 sium oxide to 1, phosphoric acid), and both require an exceptional 

 amount of the former. 



There is good reason to assume that the low state of productiveness 

 of many of our farms, so often complained of, is largely due to the 

 fact that crops have been raised in succession for years, which, like 

 those mentioned, have consumed one or the other essential article of 

 plant food in an exceptionally large proportion, and therebj' have 

 gradually unfitted the soil for their remunerative reproduction, while 

 a liberal supply of other equally important articles of plant food is 

 left inactive behind. 



As the amount of available plant food contained in the soil repre- 

 sents largely the working capital of the farmer, it cannot be other- 

 wise but that the practice of allowing a part of it to lie idle, must 

 reduce the interest on the investment. 



Personal local observation upon the lands assigned for the use 

 of the Station has furnished abundant illustration of tJie above 

 described condition of farm lands. In one instance it was noticed 

 that a piece of old worn out grass land, after being turned under and 

 properly prepared, as far as the mechanical condition of the soil was 

 concerned, produced, without any previous ajjplication of manure, an 

 exceptionally large crop of horsebeans and lupine — two reputed fod- 

 der crops; 



A similar observation was made during the past season, when 

 lands which for years had been used for the production of English 

 hay and corn, were used for the cultivation of southern cowpea, ser- 

 radella, and a mixed crop of oats and vetch, to serve as green fodder 



