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Show I r i By W. R. GILBERT. The very largo number of queries I have answered on this subject show (hat thore is a widespread desire for information among farmers as to how they can most easily and cheaply improve im-prove their poor pastures. I always answer these question with particular interest; for. traveling about as I have done, I have seen thousands and thousands of acres of the most miserable pastures in every part of the country, and I always hope that my querist is one of those whose poor pastures I have seen, and that at last he is making an effort to do something toward their improvement. There is nothing on a farm which can be so easily and cheaply improved as a pasture An old saying has it that anything that comes out of the tail of a cart will improve grass; and although al-though there is a great deal of truth tV In this remark, yet a little knowledge of what the pasture really requires will help considerably toward improving improv-ing it at a low cost. Newly sown down grasses nearly always al-ways require the addition of nitrogen to stimulate their growth, both above and below ground. There is not the! slightest doubt that the best form in which this can be supplied is as a dressing of farmyard manure, but where this is not available, it is astonishing aston-ishing what can be done with 100 or 150 pounds of nitrato of soda or 100 pounds of sulphate of ammonia per acre, provided the Geld is grazed and not mowed. It would be well, however, when encouraging en-couraging the grass by means of nitrate ni-trate of soda or sulphate of ammonia, to make sure that there is an abun-. abun-. dance of mineral matter present in the soil and to add at the same time a small dressing of phosphate, either in the form of superphosphate or basic Blag. On older pastures it is usually phosphate phos-phate they require more than anything else Many years of grazing have added to the soil a considerable amount of nitrogen Id the form of droppings, decayed roots and leaves, but as the animals grazing there have . Ol - I , I a r; Hay Off Land Made Rich With Phosphates. e been constantly manufacturing bones from the phosphates of the herbage the supply of it la apt to run short. A sure sign of a deficiency of phosphates phos-phates Is tho absence or inconspicu-ousness inconspicu-ousness of clover plants On heavy land where the clover is deficient in quantity a dressing of from 500 to 1,000 pounds of basic slag applied not later than the end of February is usually us-ually sufficient to bring about a marked improvement. On light lands it is advisable to giv e the phosphates in tho form of superphosphates, super-phosphates, and to add 200 pounds of kainit to supply potash, which is often deficient in sandy soils. In cases w here both the clovers and the grasses make poor growth, a complete com-plete manure should be given by add-i add-i Ing a dressing of farmyard manure, or ' 100 pounds of nitrate of 6oda or sulphate sul-phate of ammonia per acre. It must 1 be very distinctly remembered, however, how-ever, that if the improvement effected by these manures is to be permanent I the field must be grazed and not mown. There is another class of grass land I that often requires improvement. This is rather low lying, 60ur ground that grows an abundance of coarse herbage, herb-age, often containing a great deal of sorrel and hardheads. Such land usually us-ually requires the addition of lime, although al-though it may also respond to basic slag or other phosphoric manures. It certainly does not pay to manure .land of this sort with farmyard ma- J nure unless it has been well dressed I first with lime or basic slag In all other cases there is no doubt : whatever that farmyard manure is the most useful manure for gras6, especially es-pecially when supplemented with an i occasional dressing of phosphate. |