PERMANENT PASTURES, 73 



the most effective way to route these intruders is by a thor- 

 ough cutting. Cedar, spruce, fir and juniper, have taken 

 nearly full possession of many pastures. The time to wage 

 an eflectual warfare upon these pests is late in the fall or 

 early in the winter, when the earth is hard frozen. A single 

 blow of the axe at this time will dispatch a bush of consider- 

 able size. Briers, brakes and thistles can be kept in check, or 

 often permanently eradicated by mowing annually, or oftener 

 if need be. Buttercups are quickly got out of the way by 

 introducing sheep into a pasture troubled with them. There 

 can hardly be too much said in favor of the practice of grazing 

 mixed stock in the same pasture. In my experience, into a 

 pasture that will carry ten cows may be introduced ten sheep, 

 and the cows will continue to be fed as well as before, and 

 the sheep will quickly become ripe for the butcher, and most 

 tempting bait for the half starved canine race. Pastures 

 grazed by mixed stock are fed ofi* uniformly. A great num- 

 ber of grasses and weeds rejected by neat stock and horses, 

 are greedily eaten by sheep. Many coarse grasses and weeds 

 are thus destroyed and their places filled by finer and more 

 nutritious grasses, thus constantly improving the productive- 

 ness of the pasture. Besides, while at pasture much of the 

 feed becomes soiled by being trampled upon, and becomes 

 distasteful and is rejected. When mixed stock are pastured 

 together this loss is largely avoided, as one class of animals 

 will eat that rejected by the other. 



Having cleared the pasture of bushes and weeds, and given 

 the grasses a chance to get at the soil, and to receive the full 

 benefit of the rain and sun, we have gained a point, but the 

 field is not yet won. We need not expect that grass will 

 grow luxuriantly on soils exhausted by years of cropping. 

 Measures must be taken to restore productiveness to the soil. 

 A compost of yard manure put on as a top-dressing would 

 rarely ever fail of good results on most soils. The difiiculty 

 is, tiiat after enriching the fields in tillage, the garden and 

 orchard, there is none left for the pasture. 



For lack of a fall supply of manure from home resources 



