Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1888-01-13
Prof. Cnol,e,. N.mnor, Address.

DR.. Hoskins makes the following com
ments in the Rural Nermonter ON the ad- |
dress, at the Newport meeting, of Prof.
Cooke, secretary of the board of agrioul-
ture and director of the state experiment
station, upon the Grass Crop -
The address was listened to with marked
attention, and elected many questions from
the audience The doctrine that hay
grown for the market should be cut when
ripe, did not command entire approval. On
the whole, the secretary seemed to favor
later cutting than his audience, which is
almost u revival Of an earlier state of opin
ION between scientific and practical men
Prof. Cooke, in qualified way, allowed the
economy of fall feeding ON mowings but
Mr.. Chaplin, of the board. emphatically
condemned it under all circumstances
Prof Cooke attributed the lodging of grass
Ia very frequent occurrence the past sea
som, to an excess of nitrogen i'll the soil
but some farmers had the theory that it
might often be due to an excess of mois-
ture Certain it is that the combination of
tall growth with weak stems, which is the
mechanical part of lodging, may have 9TH
er causes than mere excess of nitrogen in
the soil, which is of rare occurrence under
the New England method of grass culture.
Prof. Cooke approved of removing the
"old flag by burning it off in the spring.
saying that the crop would be greater on
account of the manuria effect of the ashes
Aside from the danger of burning the
fences and buildings, experience has shown
to many farmers that burning the flag
weakens the roots of the grass by an ex-
cess of heat, and is followed by "a smaller
rather than larger crop of hay As to
the ashes, all the elements that remain in
tba CHI vi in, tla fo,r ia, y,,Iuhla 81 70
while the most valuable of all, the nitro
genous, is destroyed by burning Unless
the fall growth of grass is large enough to
be worth harvesting, we think there is
wisdom in allowing 1t to remain. 1t acts
as "a mulch, shading the soil, and retaining
moisture and an equable temperature, fla
vorable to niJrihcation while its gradual
decay supplies a top-dressing from which
the roots of the growing grass receive, with
each soaking ram, "a successive and timely
supply of plant-food, exactly adapted to its
needs.
Prof. Cooke spoke very sensibly in re-
gard to the uneven and ill-balanced fertili-
cation of grass, regarding it as very i'm
portant that the manure used should be
fine, and evenly spread He recommended
the application of wood ashes upon the thin
spots, which is certainly good but his ad
vice to use commercial fertilizers for the
same purpose we have never found any
profit in following. The experience we have
had in this direction is tolerably large, and
it has all tended to show that phosphate
fertilizers must be worked into the soil to
become available. The nitrogen which all
complete fertilizers contain, when such u
fertilizer is sown upon grass, being in a
soluble form, will be washed into the soil
and give the young grass bright green
color This seems to indicate that it is do
ing great deal of good but observation
over series of years has satisfied us that
the quantity of hay at moving time is not
sensiby larger on such spots than around
them. However soluble a phosphate fer
tlizer may be when applied, few hours of
contact with the moist soil causes it to re-
vert to a very slowly soluble condition, We
have been using these fertilizers largely ev-
er since their first introduction and not
the least important thing we have learned
about them is that they must be buried not
very deeply, but so as to be well under the
surface, to be of much advantage to any
crop.
Another point of Importance touched up
on in the address was the peculiar opposite
effects of wood ashes and land plaster, in
their action upon animal manures rich in
nitrogen. Prof. Cooke gave expression t.
the time honored opinion of agricultural
chemists that wood ashes, mixed with ami
NAL manure causes a loss Of nitrogen
while plaster, under the same conditions
prevents its escape, While We do not be
leve there is any good purpose to be gain
ed by mixing ashes with dungs Of any sort
(thore being no lack Of potash in them, in
proportion TO other elements), We are yet
thoroughly convinced by much experimen
tation that ashes mixed with animal ma
nures will not cause loss Of nitrogen and
equally. that plaster never has any effect
to retain it, except when the manure is IN
a state of active fermentation.