SECRETARY'S REPORT. i^i 



great difficulty able to sustain its own weight. Instinctively, such 

 animals crave bones, and if one be found, it is gnawed and chewed 

 as a sweet morsel preferable to any other food. A temporary 

 remedy is found in feeding out bone meal, but a far better one, and 

 a permanent, is a sufficient dressing of crushed bones to the land. 

 Of all applications to pastures, none equal crushed bones, both in 

 efficiency and permanency ; and the utmost care should be used 

 to save all the bones upon the farm. They can be coarsely crushed 

 by pounding, or they can first be softened by the action of wet 

 ashes or hot manure, and be more easily crushed afterwards. 

 Ashes are next to bones in value, as they contain potash and the 

 phosphates. Lime and gypsum are cheap, and in many cases most 

 efficient fertilizers. 



With regard to the practice of dividing pastures, so as to allow 

 a change from one portion to another, I may remark that in the 

 best dairying districts it is disapproved of and has been mostly 

 abandoned. On this point Mr. Willard says : 



" Cows confined to one field are more quiet and contented — they will usually 

 go over in the course of the day every portion of the field, selecting their food, 

 and when filled they lie down to rest, and manvfaclure grass into milk. All 

 extra labor, excitement, and gluttonous feeding, from an over stimulated ap- 

 petite, lessens the quantity of milk. Everything about the " every day pas- 

 ture " is familiar, and if food is abundant they have no thought beyond 

 leisurely taking their meals, and reclining at ease on some favorite spot, rumi- 

 nating or dozing over their " kniltinij work,' as Mr. Fish aptly terms it — no 

 shadow of discontent clouding their peaceful, and seemingly happy existence. 



But let a bite of grass in new fields be had, and all this is changed — they 

 overfeed, and in consequence, their health is more or less deranged, they tramp 

 round In every nook and corner of the field, in search of dainties — become 

 restless or discontented, and not unfrequently some of the more active and 

 enterprising members of the herd try fences and make excursions into fields of 

 grain and prohibited crops. 



We have seen herds with one or two unruly disposed members, though per- 

 fectly quiet and orderly while confined to one pasture, become so restless and 

 discontented, from a change to new fields, as to be exceedingly troublesome, 

 and to cause serious losses. 



There are other reasons— the cost of building and maintaining a division 

 fence is a considerable item. The pastures, too, will not be so uniformly 

 cropped ; large portions will get a rank growth, be rejected by stock, and 

 therefore afford less nutritious food through the season, than when used as one 

 pasture. Fresh pastures are more apt to produce scours, as is well known, 

 deranging the appetite and health, to a greater extent than when confined to 

 one field. The argument generally used, in favor of two pastures, is that the 

 daily tramping of the cattle on the one pasture renders the food less fresh and 

 palatable, and that the alternate pastures obviate this, giving time for grass 

 to grow, and thus producing more food and better results. The conclusion 

 arrived at is not true in fact — stock when turned into a new pasture, do not 

 rest until they have roamed over and examined every part of it, and will tramp 

 down, soil and destroy more food than if the same land was in one pasture, 

 thereby really affording or rendering available a less amount of nutritious 

 food during the season to the herd. 



