He puts on a good dressing of that, and waits to see the result. He is disappointed. The grass is a little improved in quality, but he cannot see that he has got his money back; and he makes up his mind forthwith, that ground bone does but little good on his land.

Or perhaps he thought that ammonia, or some nitrogenous stimulant, was just what his grass-land needed; and he applies guano, or nitrate of soda, or some form of muriate or sulphate of ammonia. He finds his grass takes on a deep green color, and shows signs of a vigorous growth. He begins to think he has hit the mark this time; but he soon finds that his cattle do not relish it as well as grass that has been grown under less stimulus. He notices that grass with such a growth is not so healthful and nourishing as he expected it would be, and that it soon assumes a sickly appearance. He makes up his mind that too much stimulating manure in too soluble a form acts on grass very much as an unnecessary stimulus does on men, giving a high color and increased vitality, with a tendency to premature decay. In fact, the grass will suffer from such treatment sooner or later, just as a man who lives in this unnatural way.

Nothing is more certain than that a moist climate is indispensable for a rapid and luxuriant growth of grass, or that it is impossible to contend, except under great disadvantages, against the adverse influences of climate. Our climate is not favorable to the highest uniform success in grass-farming. We have rainfall enough, taking the year through, as a general rule; but the trouble is a want of a sufficiently uniform distribution of rains. We are liable to droughts almost every summer. Sometimes they occur early in the season, and then they are well-nigh fatal to the best growth of grass. Sometimes they occur later, and then they cut off or greatly reduce our fall feed, and interfere sadly with our plans for laying down to grass, compelling us to resort more or less every year to various shifts and expedients to overcome the natural obstacles against which we have to contend. On the other hand, we cannot change or very materially modify our climatical conditions. We are compelled to take them as we find them, and to make the best of them.

One of the most common expedients to meet the case of a severe drought, and the necessity of extra feed, is the practice

of sowing fodder-corn, to cut up green, and feed to cows and other stock. Within a few years another plant, known as Hungarian grass, has been introduced, and has come to be extensively cultivated. It is a valuable acquisition to our forage-crops, and is probably better for keeping up the flow of milk in a herd of dairy cows than green corn or any other soiling-crop, while it possesses incidental advantages which recommend it for general use.

Some chemists think they have discovered the corner-stone on which all economical feeding rests; and that it consists in the proper mixture of albuminoids and carbo-hydrates. Whether this constitutes the true basis or not, we need not undertake to say. Science is constantly progressive; and some chemist may discover, or think he has discovered, some new elements which may upset all our theories in regard to the nutrition of animals. But, taking this as the latest scientific dictum on this point, let us compare this plant which we call Hungarian grass, with other well-known feeding-substances, and see if we can derive any information that will be satisfactory.

According to the analysis of Hungarian grass recently furnished me, at my request, by Professor C. A. Goessmann, the State agricultural chemist, the plant in a green state, cut when grown from eighteen to twenty-four inches high, the condition in which it is usually taken to feed out green, as a foragecrop, contains 5.86 per cent of albuminoids; while Timothy, cut in a similar condition, or in the form of green grass, contains only 4.86 per cent of the same elements, or just one per cent less, a difference in favor of the first. Hungarian grass in the same stage of growth contains 11.34 per cent of woody fibre, a comparatively indigestible material; while Timothy contains 11.32 per cent, or two-hundredths of one per cent less, - an exceedingly slight difference in favor of the Timothy. In respect to fatty and nitrogenous elements, Hungarian grass contains 14.95 per cent, while Timothy contains 24.35 per cent, a difference in favor of Timothy, so far as the nitrogenous extracts are concerned.

If, now, we take the hay made from Hungarian grass, and compare it with that made from Timothy, we find, that, in the former, there are 9.37 per cent of albuminoids, in the latter 11.36, and in June or Kentucky blue-grass hay, 10.35, show

ing these hays to be better in this respect. Of fat-forming constituents, Hungarian hay has 2.23 per cent; Timothy, 3.55 per cent; and June grass, 2.63 per cent. Of nitrogenous extracts, Hungarian has 38.41 per cent; Timothy, 53.35. Of raw or woody fibre, Hungarian contains 31.55 per cent; Timothy, 26.41; and June grass, 38.02. I do not think we can place implicit confidence in these results, as the investigations were made by different chemists on plants grown under somewhat different conditions; but they indicate, that, in the form of hay, both Timothy and June grass are considerably superior in nutritive qualities to Hungarian, a result which might have been expected.

But Hungarian has steadily and rapidly gained in popular favor, till the seed is now sold in Boston to the extent of nearly seven thousand bushels a year. One small house sold seven hundred bushels this season, another about two thousand, and so on. That is a good indication of the estimation in which it is held among farmers.

QUESTION. Cannot a pasture be harrowed with a finetooth harrow, and clover-seed sown with advantage?

Mr. FLINT. Where a pasture is bound out and mossy, and the grass-roots unhealthy, which is the case with many of our pastures, it might not be impracticable to improve it by tillage. In such a case it occurs to me that it would be well to run a Shares harrow over it diagonally, first in one direction, and then the other, cutting it up into little squares of about an inch, which would loosen the soil, and then sow pasture grass-seeds, with a little white clover, or alsike clover, and give it a light top-dressing. I think that is perfectly practicable, and that it would make a permanent improvement in our pastures. But red clover is too shortlived to serve as a pasture-grass.

Mr. WARD. It is supposed that our soils are exhausted. I am happy to say, what I know to be true, that a clovercrop will take out more nitrogen from the soil than any crop that you grow. That being the case, it shows that our soils here in New England, that we have supposed were exhausted, still retain their pristine fertility. It only needs that we put the soil in such a condition that the insoluble elements that exist there can be extracted, in order to enable us to grow

any crop without any fertilizers. fertilizers. A clover-crop takes from the subsoil, and drags to the surface, the elements required by those plants which do not extend their roots so deep. In my opinion, those old, exhausted pastures, which are so important to the dairy interests in particular, and which we desire to bring into fertility to give sustenance to our cattle, can be greatly improved by drawing over them a fine-toothed harrow similar to the Thomas smoothing-harrow, setting the teeth at such an angle that they will scratch the surface, then sowing a little clover-seed, and putting on one or two hundred pounds of plaster to the acre. In this way, without any manure, and with very little expense for seed or plaster, you will secure a good pasture for your stock, and at the same time you bring from the subsoil to the surface the elements that will continue to improve your pasture from year to year; and when, finally, you desire to break that pasture up for tillage purposes, you have your soil in a condition to grow almost any crop. That has been my experience, and that is the cheapest and best way I know to fertilize our pastures.

In regard to the quantity of seed to be sown, i would merely mention that red clover contains 205,000 seeds to a pound, whereas white clover contains 686,000 (more than three times the number of seeds), while a pound of sweet vernal grass-seed contains 923,000 seeds. It is as important to have the soil in a condition to grow the grass-seed that you sow as it is to have good seed; and as much fault can be found with the farmers who sow the seed, and complain that they do not get a good catch, as with the dealers in seed. The fault is more frequently with the farmer in not getting the soil into a condition to bear his crop after the seed germinates, than with the man who sells the seed.

It has been said, that, in regard to the time of sowing and the quantity of seed sown, we have got to take the chances. I do not myself consider that the farmer has to take any chances. If he wishes to sow grain and grass-seed together, and to have them both germinate and grow well, he must have his soil in a better condition than if it is to grow grass alone. There is a very great difference in soils. If you plough up some soil, you will find that certain grasses will grow there that are indigenous to it, and you will get a good

crop of grass, while at the same time you may sow other grass-seed in that soil, and scarcely any of it will germinate. The difference is in the character of the grass and in the condition of the soil. Now, as has been well said, if you sow a crop of clover, you bring from the subsoil the nitrogenous substances that you need to improve your land; so that although clover might be considered an exhausting crop, yet the facts of the case show that it is an invigorating crop.

Mr. SMITH of Northampton. Mr. Flint spoke of the failure of grass-seeds. I think that here in New England we do not understand one great cause of the failure of grassseeds. The Timothy that is raised at the West in such large quantities is reaped, bound, and stacked, and, in many instances, remains in the stack for some considerable period. Many times it heats in the stack to such an extent, that the vitality of the seed is destroyed. It does not hurt the looks of the seed, and people buy it just as readily as the best of seed. I saw, but a few weeks ago, large stacks that were cut in 1876. The seed was not threshed out that season, because the price was low; and the farmers let the stacks stand over. I think the seed will be just as good the second or third year as the first, if it can be kept perfectly dry; but a large portion of that which is stacked must be damaged more or less by the rains. When stacked, it cannot be all protected; and if it heats, as it does frequently (being carted when the dew is on, or when it is in a damp condition), it heats enough to injure the seed: hence there are thousands of pounds of seed in the market that never will grow. The only way I can judge whether it has been injured or not is by the color. It looks plump and round as ever; but, if it is pretty brown, I take it for granted that it has been pretty well weather-beaten, or that it has been heated in the mow or stack. Clover-seed I have kept for a number of years. I used to raise and clean clover-seed enough for my own use, and have some for market. I put it away in barrels, in a dry place, and kept it for three or four years, and I never could see any difference in the growth of those seeds as compared with other seeds.

Speaking of oats, and seeding after oats: the greatest trouble I have in spring seeding after oats is, that my land is too good. My oats lodge, so that they kill out one-half of