The Production of Pasture in Dairy Farming 



201 



r,n(l excrete a proportion of the other alimentary sub- 

 stances corresponding to that excess, while milk cows 

 assimilate the whole of these matters as well as the 

 vegetable oils. The food which, when used by a 

 feeding cow, is requisite to produce i lb. of beef, 

 would, if used by a daily cow, produce in milk nutri- 

 tive qualities equivalent to more than 2 lb., and the 

 matter excreted by the latter, being robbed of these 

 ingredients, is correspondingly poorer. The liquid 

 manure wliich contains the most of the phosphates and 

 ammonia being generally allowed to run to waste, is 

 another source of exhaustion to the land. The farm- 

 yard manure is most economically used to raise the 

 cereal and green crops, and should be ploughed deep 

 into the soil to keep it open and porous. Its decom- 

 position assists the disintegration of the soil, tending 

 to render it more friable, and this action of the manure 

 is entirely lost when it is allowed to fie and decompose 

 on the top. Artificial manures are the best adapted 

 for surface application, as tliey are more readily washed 

 into the soil, and the pasture raised thereby will be 

 more readily eaten and better relished by the cattle. 

 To supply the deficiency of phosphates and supplement 

 our manure heaps, then, it will be found profitable to 

 top-dress our young pastures copiously with bones, 

 mixed with a little ammoniacal manure, as the poverty 

 of the soil is the greatest enemy with which they have 

 to contend. If we keep the soil well-drained, deeply 

 tilled, and in good manurial condition, nature would 

 soon bring upon it a luxuriant vegetation, but if we go 

 hand-in-hand with nature, and deposit the seeds of 

 those plants we wish to cultivate, it will render us great 

 assistance in covering the land with useful herbage. 



INFLUENCE OF ROTATION ON PASTURE. 



I may now make some allusion to the general sys- 

 tems of cropping, and their influence on the production 

 of pasture. The most common system on the higher 

 and more inland localities is to take two crops of oats 

 and a crop of perennial ryegrass hay, and then allow 

 the land to be depastured for three, four, five, or six 

 years. This system has the recommendation of being 

 the least expensive in management, and on heavy land 

 when it is well manured it is the most profitable ; but 

 if the soil is allowed to remain poor, it encourages 

 weeds and the poorer grasses. When this system is 

 followed on clay soils, not naturally calcareous, a little 

 lime may be very profitably applied. As there is an 

 accimnilation of organic matter in the soil when lying 

 in grass, some of the manurial elements form insoluble 

 compounds with the organic acids, and are thus lost to 

 the plants, the lime tends to their decomposition, and 

 makes available all the manurial matter the soil con- 

 tains. Lime ameliorates the soil, assists in its disin- 

 tegration, neutralises any acids, and decomposes any 

 poisonous substances in it, in adaptation to the healtii 

 and exigencies of the plants ; it acts injuriously on most 

 of the poorer grasses, and encourages all the better 

 sorts. In some districts lime is applied to the sward 

 during the summer before it is ploughed, a coating of 



farm-yard manure put on the stubble and ploughed in 

 for the second crop of oats, and by this means the 

 land is sown out in good condition for pasture. 

 Lime put in a powdery state on the ploughed land, 

 and harrowed in along with the seed of the cereal crop, 

 is a good prejjarative for the grass and clover seeds, 

 and for the first year secures a luxuriant growth. 

 The custom of allowing glasses to ripen their seeds 

 (the first year) is unfavourable to the raising of first- 

 class pasture. This practice, which is so pre- 

 valent in this county, weakens the roots of the plants, 

 and deprives the soil of a quantity of phosphates. As 

 no seed can be formed without the presence of phos- 

 phoric acid, it is therefore incongruous to a dairy 

 district. The gi-owth of beans, either on lea or in 

 drills, is unfavourable to the production of pasture, the 

 decaying roots of the beans proving poisonous to the 

 grass plants, so that the pasture does not assume the 

 same healthy appearance after them. Barley is the 

 best cereal crop on which to sow the grass seeds ; it is 

 not an exhaustive crop on the land, and being early 

 off, the grass plants are enabled to root deeper the 

 first year. Under the foregoing system of cropping, 

 the land undergoes so little tillage, and is so little ex- 

 posed to tlie atmospheric action, that the vegetable 

 matter is not altogether destroyed, and some of the 

 good perennial grasses still retain hold of the soil, and 

 appear again in the pasture when sown down. By 

 this means the land is covered with a close sward 

 sooner than after being gi-een-cropped ; but unless the 

 land is kept in good condition, and full crops raised, 

 the sward is likely to be composed of a considerable 

 number of spurious grasses, and other \\-eeds which 

 yield comparatively little nutrition to the stock feeding 

 on them. If the land through poverty or otherwise 

 lias got covered with a coarse and unprofitable sward, 

 it ought to be subjected to a system of cropping, em- 

 bracing a green crop. In gi'een cropping the soil is 

 freed from all roots of grass and other weeds ; the 

 organic matter is completely destroyed by the pro- 

 longed exposure of the soil to the influence of the sun 

 and the atmosphere, thus rendering it comparatively 

 poor. An opportunity, however, is afforded of deep- 

 ening the soil by tillage, and improving its texture by 

 reducing it to a fine state of comminution. Thus the 

 green cropping of clay land, though an expensive 

 operation, exercises a salutary influence on the soil, 

 and by a kindred action renders the application of 

 lime less necessary. The clay of the soil is de- 

 composed by the atmospheric influence and the 

 mechanical operations brought to bear on it. The 

 alkaline earths and silicic acid in combination 

 with it are rendered available for the plants, and 

 give firmness and strength of straw to the following 

 cereal crops. There is a very prevalent idea that tlie 

 green cropping of heavy land is antagonistic to tlie 

 raising of good pasture, but when the season is favour- 

 able and the land properly managed there is nothing 

 in the system that militates against the growth of 

 grass. A considerable amount of manure is applied 



