150 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



portant element in their continued productiveness. The 

 question whether we can afford to raise our own cows and 

 oxen depends largely upon utilizing these outlying fields, 

 which otherwise would go to waste ; not only a waste of 

 what they now produce, but a loss of their capacity to pro- 

 duce herbage that can be turned to some profit. Virtually, 

 our summer pasturage on such fields costs less than maintain- 

 ing the fences ; for without it the land is growing less pro- 

 ductive faster than with it, even if it does not grow better, a& 

 it usually does by proper use. If we add to this a dressing 

 of plaster or ashes, and, where needed, a little grass or clover 

 seed, we may expect substantial improvement. 



Shall we Plough Pastures for Their Improvement? 



That depends on circumstances. The improper use of the 

 plough shows its effects everywhere on our worn hillsides, 

 Whole townships have been impoverished by grain-raising, 

 till by sheer necessity they were driven to pasturage. There 

 have been some notable examples in Fairfield County, Con- 

 necticut. They raised rye and buckwheat till, some forty 

 years ago, they could no longer harvest paying crops. Pas- 

 turage with fattening steers and the use of plaster was tried, 

 with less ploughing, and the same hillsides have become 

 covered with most luxuriant grass, pronounced by a noted 

 cattle-breeder from another part of the State as " the finest 

 pasture he had ever seen." 



There may be a small income above expense in cropping 

 these steep New England hillsides, and a temporary im- 

 provement in the pasturage from ploughing and reseeding ; 

 but too often the last state is worse than the first. The wash- 

 ing from disturbing the turf, which held in place the finer 

 portions of the soil, and the destruction of many species of 

 native grasses, which alone have power to withstand the 

 increasing drouths and poverty of the soil, operate to 

 make the fancied gain deceptive, and the loss to the land is 

 greater than the apparent gain. Said a boy to me, " Why 

 is he ploughing that hill?" " To raise a crop of buckwheat 

 and then seed down to improve the pasture." *' But, as he 

 puts on no manure, I don't see how he is to gain anything." 

 Neither could I. A very moderate dressing of stable 



