166 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



A well known farmer, in Stoughton, had a worn-out, mossy 

 pasture, which he broke up and manured two years ago, and 

 from four acres of which he has, this summer, cut eleven tons 

 of good hay. Another farmer, noted for the amount and excel- 

 lence of his butter, has, within seven or eight years, broken up, 

 manured and cultivated more than twenty acres of good-for- 

 nothing pasture, and laid it down again in so productive a 

 condition, that he niiiintains, in excellent order, more than 

 double the amount of stock that was ever before kept on that 

 farm. 



There is a growing conviction among farmers, that they must 

 either expend money in improving pastures, or abandon them, 

 or supply their deficiencies by an increased amount of green 

 fodder. Tliere can be little doubt of the indispensableness of 

 the latter course, if the object is to produce milk ; for nothing 

 excels, in milk production, the tender, succulent leaves and 

 stalks of young corn and recently-grown grass. 



We have now in mind a farmer, in this county, who keeps 

 seven or eight cows in the stable through the summer, and feeds 

 them on green fodder, chiefly corn. We asked him the reasons 

 for it. His answer was : 1. That he gets more milk than he 

 can by any other method. 2. That he gets more manure, 

 especially liquid manure. 3. That he saves it all by keeping a 

 supply of mould or mud under the stable, to be taken out and 

 renewed as often as necessary. 4. That it is less troublesome 

 than to drive his cows to pasture ; that they are less vexed by 

 flies and have equally good health. 5. That his mowing land 

 is every year growing more productive without the expense of 

 artificial manure.* He estimates that on an acre of good land, 

 twenty tons of green fodder may be raised. That which is 

 dried is cut fine and mixed with meal or shorts, and fed with 



* An EngHsli farmer says : " AVhere milch cows are allowed to range 

 abroad for their food, they will never produce that quantity of milk that they 

 will when confined, let their food be ever so plenty ; when they are not 

 hungry, they will be searching after the sweetest spots of herbage, and thereby 

 deprive themselves of rest. There is economy, also, in land. Thirty acres 

 of land would be sufficient to produce food enough for forty dairy cows, — if 

 properly managed, — including for hay; whereas, in the common mode of 

 feeding, twice that number of acres would not do, and they would not pro- 

 duce above half the quantity of milk and butter." 



