St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-03-03
Farmers Meeting at T.. Hard
wick.

The Board of Agriculture held meet
ings at East Hardwick last Thursday
and Friday, ut the Congregational
church. The meeting was opened
Thursday at 10 Il. M, the members
present being DIR. II. A. Cutting, E. X.
Towle of Franklin, NJ. w. Davis of
Westminster. and f.. NJ. Goodwin of
Hartland. The first subject for cOnsid-
GRAFTON was Renovating Pastures !:
opened 10y (. II. Towle. Mr.. Towle,
after mentioning the Importance of the
pasture i'll connection with dairying
and sheep husbandry, notes the great
deterioration of Vermont pastures, Civ
ing as Il reason the constant removal
of their heritage with only Il compare
lively small return of any fertilizing
element, and strongly recommends
blowing, when the state of the soil
will permit. He would then apply
from ten to twelve loads of stable
manure and two hundred pounds of
some mineral fertilizer. When the soil
is tough and soddy would SOW India
or buckwheat to thoroughly pulverize
it before seeding to grass. He would
SOW several kinds eff grass-secd so as
to have a succession of growths: men
tiOning red. alsike and white clover,
timothy, red-tOp and also orchard
III
c0mmends raising winter rye, in sec
tions where possible to pillow under,
and so enrich the soil would also ap-
ply potash to land deficient in this ele-
ment, and mentions bone meal as il
slow but lasting and valuable fertilizer.
L. VI. Goodwin mentioned the trouble
caused by brakes in Vermont pastures,
and asked for Il remedy. Mr.. Hutch
ings, of Stannard, had killed them by
moving two consecutive seasons, about
the first of July. DIR. Cutting would
not pillow, but harrow when the ground
was soft from rains. and then SOW seed.
The narrowing will thin ont superfu-
Gus roots and will not destroy the sod
us blowing will. Put seeds where you
want grass; would supply phOsphoric
acid to pastures as cattle need bone
forming material; the pastures don't
need heterogeneous but mineral fertiliz-
ers. He has used German potash,
salts and wood ashes on pastures with
paying results. Recommends mixing
bones with ashes in leach tubs and al
lowing them to stand the year round,
when the bones will he thoroughly
dissolved and become valuable feItil-
izer. Mr.. IIawsc, of MOrrisville, in
dorses narrowing instead of blowing
pastures, reasoning quite exclusively
from chemistry to support the practice.
The afternoon session was opened by
a lecture by NJ. w. Davis-Subiect,
''The Horse :" giving a full account of
his origin and development, his breed
ing, raising, management, etc; and
this was followed, after singing by
choir, by DIR. Cutting on "Our Birds"
giving an account of some of the most
curious and useful ones. Under the
last head he classes the owl, as the
most useful of farmers birds, killing
more rats and mice than dozen cats,
and an occasional hen when very hun
CRY ; the hawk, also one of the farm
er's friends, killing many field mice
and other vermin; but he especially
eulOgizes the crow as being almost in
to the farmers success.
He will not have them killed on his
farm, considering that they do much
more good than harm, consuming num-
berless caterpillars, white grubs, po-
tato beetles, and many other injurious
insects, and never molesting vcgeta-
ton when animal food is to be found.
He has found in several cases over one
hundred potato beetles in the stomach
of a single crow.
Thursday evening was devoted To-
"How Plants Grow and What They
Eat" by DR.. Cutting. He began by
describing the roots of plants and
the manner in which they take up
plant food. The small rootlets only
absorb nutriment, and as they are so
minute, it can only be taken up as
clear liquid, not rily or even colored.
Care should be exercised not to have