FAKMEES' INSTITUTES. 103 



be better to allow the grass undisputed possession, and the result would hardly 

 fail to be a "'good catch." "When the ground is well settled, so that a team and 

 wagon can be driven on it Avithout injury, plaster sown on it at the rate of 

 one hundred pounds to the acre, would on mo-t soils prove a prolitable invest- 

 ment. Following this mode of treatment, a fair crop of grass might reasonably 

 be expected the first season after seeding, with increasing yields during succeed- 

 ing years. The foregoing is written for that too numerous class of farmers 

 who, by injudicious management, have impoverished their farms to such an 

 extent that raising grass seems impossible, and between this time and spring 

 they will be seen traveling about the country with wagon and hay-rack in 

 search of the farmer who has hay to sell on credit ! The good farmer needs no 

 instruction from me. His farm is kept in good condition, and by a judicious 

 application of fertilizers, his crops, both of grass and grain, grow better each 

 succeeding year. There is one practice, however, that prevails among good 

 farmers, and against whicli I here enter an earnest and emphatic jn'otest. I 

 allude to the custom of pasturing newly seeded grass lands during the autumn 

 after the wheat crop has been taken off ; a practice which, in my oj)inion, ought 

 to be strongly condemned. The roots of the young timothy during the first 

 season have but a slight hold upon the ground, and animals, in pasturing upon 

 it, pull it up to such an extent as to seriously impair the subsequent growth. 

 This is particularly the case in dry weather, and in very wet weather the injury 

 is scarcely less from tramping the young plants into the soft ground. I lay it 

 down as a principle susceptible of general application, that no animals should 

 be allowed to graze upon land the first year after being laid down to grass, and 

 never upon land intended for meadow from the first day of September until the 

 crop of hay is taken off the season following. The cutting and curing of hay, 

 of which I had purposed saying something, hav^ing been assigned to an abler pen, I 

 pass by, and proceed to the other division of my subject ( " Fattening Cattle" ) ; 

 and here, I frankly confess at the outset, that what I don't know about this 

 subject, would, if told, occupy much more space on paper than the facts with 

 which I am acquainted. Though there lias been scarcely a winter during the last 

 twenty years in which I have not fattened several head of cattle, I have not con- 

 ducted the matter in that systematic manner by which accurate results are ob- 

 tained . That the business of feeding cattle for market has been a source of profit 

 to me, I have no doubt. That it would prove equally advantageous to any and every 

 one who might engage in it, I seriously question. Like every other occupation, 

 feeding cattle for market requires the exercise of good judgment in the selection 

 of animals to be fed, and experience, in care and feeding, to secure the best 

 results. Even with these requisites, the practical feeder may not always realize 

 a greater net profit for hay and grahi fed to animals tlian he would have received 

 for the same products if sold in the market ; but by manufacturing those pro- 

 ducts into fertilizing material for enriching the farm, he can Scarcely fail to be 

 the gainer in the end. But without theorizing further I will briefly give my 

 practice in fattening cattle. 



My barn is one of those old-fashioned structures built when Allegan county 

 was considered younger than it is at present, and it was deemed essential for the 

 good of the products to be stored in said barn, that there be cracks or openings 

 of from one-half to three-fourths of an inch in width between the boards iised 

 for enclosing it, in order to permit the free circulation of air. Beneath the frame 

 of the barn I have constructed a basement 68 feet long by 36 feet wide and nine 

 feet high, with a stone wall on three sides, in which are stables for feeding cat- 



