140 ( Assembly 



close carpet of grass, composeil of the purest materials, can be spread 

 over the land, the more durable it will be, and the sooner the farmer 

 will reap his reward and the longer enjoy it, and be remunerated in 

 the end ten fold, for the additional money expended in seed. Gyp- 

 sum or plaster is applied with advantage to grass in various stages of 

 it ; as a top-dressing it stimulates, and in most cases increases much 

 its growth. Lime, too, applied in the same way, not only stimulates 

 but sweetens it, and stock eat it more freely and with a better relish; 

 it neutralizes also the acidity of surface soils, prevents mosses and 

 other useless, pernicious plants of most kinds, from infesting soils, 

 and kills insects in their worm state, and protects plants from them 

 in their winged state. A little salt is good sometimes, applied with 

 ihe lime or gypsum, or by itself. 



These ingredients besides other benefits all absorb and retain mois- 

 ture more or less for the use of plants, and they aid in droughts. 

 Judgment is to be exercised in the use of them, and especially salt, 

 as very little of this serves. The bestdependance for the farmer after 

 all from severe droughts and short crops from any cause, is a bed of 

 earth possessing all the necessary mineral ingredients, with a good 

 surface mould of rich vegetable remains properly compounded, mixed 

 and pulverized by good and deep plowing. Such a bed or matrix 

 will attract, absorb and retain for the use of plants more moisture than 

 anythnig else, besides possessing all the ^ther requisites in the shape 

 of food. Bone earth or phosphate of lime is an important ingredient 

 of soils; a portion of it is necessary for most plants, and especially the 

 nutritious grasses on which animals principally live, it is the bone 

 forming clement. Young animals require more than others. In this 

 stage the bone and muscle form and grow, harden and acquire strength, 

 which of course strengthens the whole frame; flesh and fat are laid on, 

 and these cannot grow healthily unless they have a good foundation 

 to rest upon. Providence has wisely ordered in this, as in many of 

 the beneficent operations of nature, that the cow in her secretions of 

 ' milk should absorb more of the bone earth from her system than any 

 similar animal. It has been found by analysis that milk contains 

 considerably more of this ingredient than any substances discharged 

 from her body through other channels, of course her manure cannot 

 contain so much ; a great portion of it has passed off in another direc- 



