Red clover renews itself only from seed, but white clover from the roots or layers. June grass and witch grass both spread from underground stems. If our grasses were allowed to stand late enough, they would all renew themselves from seed, but good husbandry requires cutting too early for this.

The proposition is conceivable of a timothy meadow kept vigorous and clear from other grasses for a term of years by annual top-dressing, but such meadows, if existing at all, are exceedingly rare. They are not found on dry soils, and timothy is not a natural grass for wet land.

Whoever would attempt to keep a permanent meadow by topdressing, should select other grasses than timothy for his sod, unless he scatters seed freely with the manure applied. Redtop, or other so-called natural meadow grasses, will be likely to be found in all good mowings that can be kept productive for a long period by the application of manure to the surface. Nature will help us in our selection of varieties, if we will study the character of the grasses found in good mowings that are kept rich and productive by annual flowage in the spring.

TIME TO TOP-DRESS.

I believe the best time to top-dress is the next day after the hay is cut and removed from the field. The manure then acts as a mulch to shade the surface and protect the roots, and also by affording a fresh supply of plant food, which will be washed into the soil by the first shower or rain-storm.

But I would not give much thought to top-dressing except upon such lands as will produce at least two good crops of hay every season. Manure applied just after haying makes the second crop almost an assured fact every year on lands and sod adapted to permanent mowing. The next best time is in the spring just as the grass is starting into vigorous growth, provided the soil is firm enough to cart over at that time, as it will be if it is properly drained.

Manure for top-dressing should either be so thoroughly rotted and fine that it will readily sift down in amongst the stubble, or it should be so soft that a heavy bush, or a smoothing harrow, or

drag, will spread it all down close to the earth. Manure applied in lumps left to dry on the surface is worth very little as topdressing.

I have never seen better results from top-dressing than when I have drawn out manure fresh from the barn cellar, and so soft that a bush drawn over the ground the same day would apparently leave nothing but a heavy manure stain upon every inch of soil and every spear of grasss. The first rain gave the crop a heavy dressing of liquid manure.

I would prefer to give such a dressing twice a year, first in May and next in July, after cutting the first crop; but to save labor, one larger application might be more economical. This method is specially applicable to what we commonly term natural grasses. Timothy might be injured in dry weather by drawing a heavy brush or harrow over the stubble.

Fine mauure, even if heavily extended with loam or other soil by composting, might be better for timothy on dry uplands, although I do not advocate top-dressing dry land at all.

Fertilizers for top-dressing present some of the same difficulties which attend the use of stable manure, and a lack of some of its benefits. Fertilizers have no use as a mulch, nor do they add to the amount of the surface soil in which the young surface roots must feed. We find the same tendency of the earlier grasses to take possession of the land and crowd out later and better varieties.

We are apt to speak of mowing-land in this condition as "bound out," which simply means that June grass has filled the soil full of roots, and this grass is not much of a cropper as ordinarily treated.

I know of men owning farms which they have wished to handle at a profit, but with as little labor as possible, who have had the strongest faith in commercial fertilizers, and have used them extensively for top-dressing permanent mowings, or mowings which they had hoped would be permanent, but I have known of no instance where ordinary tillage land has been thus treated without bringing disappointment sooner or later.

"Bound out"

- the timothy all gone and June grass in its place is the common complaint, but a bad winter or white

grubs in summer often bring the experiment to an abrupt termination; and the land must be plowed and re-seeded, either directly, or, what is far better as a rule, after a cultivated crop.

Land long in grass becomes after a while, under the pressure of teams and cart-wheels, too hard and compact for the best growth of the plants. The surface sheds rather than absorbs the showers as they fall, and moisture goes off into the brooks and is lost to the field. There is also, as is claimed, a shutting up of the capillary air spaces through which moisture is brought up from the subsoil in a dry time to sustain surface vegetation. This is undoubtedly true to a considerable extent, as shown by the sensitiveness to drought of a much-trodden pasture or a dooryard walk.

Another objection to continuous top-dressings for mowings, is the growing of one kind of crop continually without rotation, a system which must be attended with more or less waste. We may fill our soil with certain elements of plant food which the grass crop cannot return to us but which would be returned in an occasional crop of clover or roots. This fact must explain in part why so many farmers who have experimented in topdressing have come to the conclusion that one load of manure worked into the soil is worth two spread upon the surface. They apply only a moderate dressing, for a corn crop, for instance, and after the corn, get a heavier crop of grass than they would have expected had they applied the same amount of manure to the old sod direct.

We hear much said, and properly, too, of the mechanical effect of manure in the soil, but there is little or no mechanical effect to be looked for from surface application on grass. Theoretically, there is no waste by the exposure of manure on the surface, but, practically, I believe there may be. I have spread manure on plowed fields in the autumn and left it exposed all winter, and found the cultivated crops the following summer quite as heavy as where the same amount of manure was applied in the spring immediately before planting. On the other hand, I have spread a top-dressing on grass land in the fall, leaving it in a somewhat lumpy and uneven condition, and have failed to see much benefit from it the summer following, or any time. afterwards.

In treating this subject of top-dressing I might have simply stated that, in my own farm practice, top-dressing grass lands had not been attended with satisfactory results. But some one else might have replied and said that top-dressing had always paid him; and he was convinced that it is the true way to raise grass. Then, there would have been simply the opinions of two, looking at a subject from different standpoints. I have endeavored to discover some of the reasons why different farmers arrive at opposite conclusions as a result of their several experi

ments.

My conclusion is, if one has natural grass land, which is too stony to plow and not worth the clearing, this top-dressing must be resorted to, for it is the "Hobson's choice"; but if the land is tillable, or can be made so by a reasonable outlay, then apply the manure to cultivated crops and work it into the soil, and get the grass in rotation. If it is thought desirable to top-dress a few times to retain the grass longer, then by all means apply the top-dressing while the valuable grasses are still vigorous, instead of waiting till there is nothing left worth top-dressing; for manure, unless it is well stocked with good grass seed, cannot restore a mowing from which the best varieties are all starved out. Much depends upon conditions and circumstances surrounding each individual, and each must be governed accordingly in practice. We may well remember, however, that principles never change.

AGRICULTURAL FAIRS.

IN addition to a state fair, about the usual number of county, district, and town fairs were held during the autumn of 1886. The agricultural report would very properly contain a brief account of each, but we are able to present in this volume only the reports of the following, furnished by Dr. W. H. H. Mason, member of the Board from Carroll county:

THE STATE GRANGE FAIR AT TILTON.

As delegate of the Board of Agriculture, I attended the Grange fair at Tilton, September 29-30 and October 1. This was the first annual state fair and festival held under the auspices and direction of the Grange, but we hope it was not the last. Every one interested in agricultural fairs has reason for gratitude to this organization for the example set in the manner of conducting this fair. It is doing no injustice to any previous fairs to say that it was the best exhibition of the kind ever held in the State. The grounds were well arranged, and the display of stock, farming tools, agricultural products, and handiwork was of the highest order.

It was a novelty, inasmuch as it was what it purported to be, a strictly agricultural fair, free from the objectionable features of fairs in general. No kinds of intoxicating drinks were allowed on the grounds or environs; no gambling, no horse racing, and no disturbance of any kind. The example set by this exhibition must have a highly favorable effect on future fairs in the State in morals as well as in the farming interest.

The farmers of New Hampshire are under great obligations