profit accrues; and when this plant is once established, it will remain for many years in full vigor, and produce annually, a great quantity of herbage of excellent quality. Four years ago, I obtained from Messrs. Lawson of Edinburg, five pounds of seeds, which I sowed to one acre, and as I was cautious in my experiment, mixed it with about two or three pounds of Timothy. It stood the winter admirably, and I cut the following year, certainly not less than three tons of the finest clover hay I had ever seen. In the end of June, and before ripening its seeds, I expected to have the second crop run to seed, which it did not, but produced an unparalleled mass of feed, so close and even and about one foot in length, that I could have fancied it would bear one up to walk over it. The second year I had an equal quantity mixed with Timothy, and I found the clover, when the seeds ripened, to suit the time for cutting the Timothy exactly, without blackening and going to waste, as the common red does. I consider this as its greatest recommendation, for we all know well, that red clover and Timothy, the usual mixture sown, is on account of the inequality of ripening, but ill suited for producing an abundant crop of first class hay, as the one or the other must be partially sacrificed. The third cutting, last year, was heavier than either of the former, such as only a first rate machine could have given the coup de grace to. By shaking, I got as much seed as has covered four acres with as fine a plant, and as thick as can be expected, and I feel confident in taking twelve tons of hay from the piece this year."

In a later communication, of July 6, 1858, accompanying a sample of the clover sent to the Board for examination, he says, "Upon my four acres, three men have been mowing three and a half days. There will be about fifteen tons."

Among the foreign notices of this clover, I find a report of a trial in East Lothian, Scotland, on an extensive scale, (upwards of sixty acres.) After stating the details of culture and results, the writer adds: "I have, therefore, every reason to be satisfied with the experiments I have made with this species of clover, having found it to grow freely and thick, and to be the earliest and finest herbage for any description of stock, that requires early, fine clover, especially up to midsummer. It is an invaluable auxilliary to red clover, and quite capable of forming a substitute for it. It has the

disadvantage of not bearing a drought so well as the Red, owing, I presume, to the fact that the surfaces of its leaves being less, and thereby not extracting so much support and moisture from the atmosphere during nights and mornings, as the other. It has a much finer stalk and its roots are not so strong, nor do they strike. so deep, which may be the reason of its not standing the drouth so well." He adds his belief, that it is quite as well adapted to light as to heavy soils. From what I have been able to learn of this variety, I deem it worthy of careful trial in Maine.

I have already remarked that clover is not properly a grass, as it belongs to an entirely different order, viz:-the Leguminosa, and not to the Graminca-this, to be sure, does not concern the farmer who only desires a good crop of hay, but it is also true that the botanical distinction is not more marked than are their different requirements, for the proper grasses are greatly stimulated in growth by the salts of ammonia, which produce little effect upon clover. Clover, on the other hand, is greatly stimulated by the application. of mineral manures, as gypsum, phosphate of lime, &c., which scarcely increase the growth of grasses at all.

This fact was very distinctly brought out in a series of carefully conducted experiments by Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, reported in the last number of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, and which were instituted to show the effects of different manures on permanent meadow land. These were quite too extended and elaborate to allow of even a brief abstract being given here, but I quote a single paragraph, which will suffice on this point:

"It will be shown in some detail in a subsequent section that the description of the increase differed extremely. In fact, where the ammoniacal salts were employed, the increase was exclusively due to the increased growth of Graminaceous plants-the so called Natural Grasses-there being scarcely a Leguminous plant to be found upon the plot. Where the purely mineral manures were used, on the other hand, the grasses, properly so called, were observed scarcely to have increased at all; whilst the whole plot was thickly covered with Perennial Red Clover, (Trifolium pratense perenne,) and some other Leguminous plants. Such a result is perfectly consistent with what has been before established regarding the (so to speak) characteristic adaptation of mineral and nitro

genous manures respectively to those crops of the respective families which are grown in our rotations." Farm yard manure, which contains both ammoniacal salts and mineral matters, was found to be of great benefit to both.

The hay crop of Maine is estimated at not far from one million of tons, and its value at ten millions of dollars annually*-quite as much, if not more than the value of all the other cultivated crops of the State taken together; and the most important interest in the State. If to this we add pasturage, the amount is materially increased-perhaps doubled.

The importance of this crop appears not only from its actual and comparative value as expressed by dollars, but from other considerations. In this climate we are compelled to feed stock for half the year from winter stores, and for these we must depend chiefly upon hay. Upon this then depend largely our flocks and herds, and upon these, our ability to enrich the soil so as to insure a yield not of the products of a stock husbandry merely, but bread for ourselves. Never was a truer saying, and seldom one of broader and deeper import, than the utterance of the Voice, "all flesh is grass."

From the nature of our surroundings, grass is and always must be the staple crop of Maine. The climate, it is true, if no other crops were to be grown, might be found better adapted to it if more equably moist and mild in spring; but look this vast country over, to Florida at the south, to California at the west, and see if, on the whole, any other State whatever has greater facilities in this regard than we?—the long winters even which we are so apt to deem a serious drawback, afford a protection to the tender herb in the warm blanket of snow which is not to be lightly esteemed, and which many others are deprived of.

" that when in condition

Much of our soil is so (( natural to grass, to yield good crops of other products, we have to be active and vigilant to keep it out when this is desirable.

This may be deemed by some too large an estimate for the past few years, in some of which the hay crop has not been very large, but when we note the fact, that in 1850 the census returns show a crop of 755,889 tons, and recollect too the proneness which always exists to understate in response to questions which may be supposed even to squint towards taxation, and also the large increase within ten years past, I think the reader will agree with me that it is a moderate one.

Such indications would naturally lead a stranger to the conclusion that grass is largely grown in Maine, and an examination will show that notwithstanding the present barren condition of so many fields, we still cut, in proportion to our population, about twice as much hay as the average of the States of the Union.

Such being the magnitude of this interest, it is patent that nothing. else upon the farm better deserves earnest and thoughtful attention. If improvement can be effected by which the crop can be increased only a hundredth part, this will secure a gain to the farmers' pocket of one hundred thousand dollars-if increased one-tenth, it will amount to one million of dollars-if one half, the gain will be five millions, and if doubled, no less than ten millions of dollars; and if pasturage be included, as much as ten millions more.

I know of no reason why such an increase, or even a much greater one, in amount and value, may not be effected.

When we look at the thousands of wet meadows and unreclaimed swamps, many of them of considerable extent, containing untold quantities of vegetable food, and into which the mineral riches of hill and upland adjoining has been gathering for ages past, and which need but to be relieved of injurious water and supplied with air in its place, to equal in fertility for grass the best intervals by our rivers' side-when we look at the loss and waste of manure which prevails upon the great majority of farms in the Statewhen we look at the unclaimed fertilizers of the ocean-seaweed, muscle bed, fish refuse, etc., which are easily available along a scacoast more extensive and more indented than that of any other State in the Union-when we look at the great diversity of methods employed in the preparation of the soil-in seeding down-in the treatment after seeding, in the time of cutting and the style of harvesting, all of which certainly cannot be the best, we cannot fail to see ample means of securing a vast, perhaps indefinite, increase, and of corresponding prosperity.

Suppose we look for a moment, more critically to the result of improvement upon a single point.

The hay crop of Maine is now harvested from more than a million of acres, perhaps a million and a quarter, or a million and a half Suppose the same amount cut from half the surface, would there be any gain, and if so, how much? The cost of cutting, curing and

storing a ton of hay grown on an acre and a quarter, in average seasons, cannot be reckoned less than $2 50, (many farmers put it at $3 or upwards,) at present prices of labor.*

Two tons upon the same area can be cut, cured and stored, in circumstances otherwise similar for $3.50 or an additional dollar per acre, and probably for less-a saving of 75 cents per ton, which upon the crop of the State, would amount to $750,000. It might be said, and with truth, that the quality of hay grown at the rate of a ton and a half or upwards, per acre, is not fully so good as that grown at the rate of only a ton per acre; but when we recollect that by the supposed change, one-half the land now occupied as meadow would be left for pasturage, we find here a gain far out

* I have found considerable difficulty in ascertaining with anything approaching exactness, the usual cost of baying in the State at large.

The following, from S. F. Perley, Esq., late President of the State Agricultural Society, is much the most precise and definite reply I have received.

"In answer to your question as to the cost of harvesting hay, I offer, in tabular form' figures, which I extract from my farm journal. It is proper to remark that the season has been extraordinarily favorable for the hay harvest. No time has been lost, and no work twice done; hay once spread was sure to be fit for the barn.

You will perceive that my fields yield from 800 pounds to 3,000 pounds, per acre. The cost of harvesting being varied by the distance from the buildings, I have given a column of distances. The labor employed was equal to

Able bodied men's labor, 50 days, $1.50 per day,

Machine labor,

Horses (6

Ox

$75 00

The actual cost was somewhat below the above average, as part of my labor was hired by the month, which comes lower than day labor. The per diem can be changed to suit the locality.

I cannot give the cost of harvesting an acre, bearing two tons, from actual trial, as no one of my fields averaged that amount. But you will see that the greater the yield the less per ton, and the more per acre, the cost, and vice versa."