258 Transactions of the American Institute. 



tected by binding cornstalks around the trunks. These are cheaper 

 than straw and last longer. 



Ridding Pastures of Moss. 



Mr. F. E. Palmer, Centreville, New York, stated that the farmers 

 in that vicinity are mostly engaged in dairying. " Many, with my- 

 self, have large pastures where the land is naturally good, but the 

 grass is running out, and a dark, green, mossy substance is taking its 

 place. Can such land be economically reclaimed, and grass be made 

 to grow by any top dressing other than barnyard manure ? If we 

 plough up such land and reseed it it will be all right again, but many 

 pastures are so situated that it would make much inconvenience to 

 do so. If men who have had experience in such matters, belonging 

 to your Club, can give us some good, practical advice, we will be 

 much obliged." 



Col. Slipper — Use lime. Mr. Mitchell tells us that in this way he 

 brought up the hill-pasture at Edgewood, which, though several acres 

 in extent, was at the outset too poor to afford forage for a single cow. 

 Now, each acre supports a cow, and it has had no treatment but stone 

 underdrains and a good coat of lime. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble — In many cases, as a chemical agent, lime 

 may be useful, but by liberal application of barnyard manure you 

 will make the grass crowd out less desirable growth. 



Dr. H. E. Colton — I have in my mind a mossy lawn in Brooklyn 

 which was much helped by application of lime. 



Mr. H. L. Reade — Moss is becoming an intolerable nuisance. I 

 believe that its eradication in the eastern and middle States would 

 add thousands of dollars to the value of lands that are every year 

 becoming more and more covered with, and for the time ruined, by 

 it. I have succeeded in killing .it only by ploughing at least three 

 times, sowing after the third plowing grass seed, to form a sward. 

 In six years the process needed repeating. What we want is some 

 top-dressing that will eifect what ploughing does, with the further 

 good of killing it forever. 



The Chairman — I put two tons of bone-dust on three acres of 

 grass land, which had much growth of moss, and the grass took such 

 a start that it choked the moss, as Dr. Trimble says it always will. 



Mr. H. B. Smith, of Westiield — I have a low-lying meadow of 

 about four acres, which was. formerly covered with moss, and didn't 

 produce hay enough to keep one cow. I limed a part of it, with 

 good results ; to another part I applied manure ; but the thing which 



