780 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Milk cows dry up and all his stock grows thin. They find weak places 

 in the fence and get out. After they get out two or three times B has to 

 work and sleep with one eye on his stock, and material to repair the fence 

 at hand, and all this time he is blaming the man who he thinks sold him 

 unruly stock. 



Take a look at A's stock. In the early morning they fill themselves 

 with the abundance of grass, dry but moistened more or less by the dew. 

 As the heat of the day comes and the flies bother they seek a shady, 

 cool place, or bunch together, as some tell us, to create a current of air 

 that will make it cool and blow the flies away. As evening comes and 

 the flies lay down their labors for the day the stock scatter out, fill them- 

 selves again lie down and quietly rest till morning, thus holding their 

 own or gaining in weight. 



A nice shower comes. The grass roots in A's pasture take on new 

 life and send up green shoots, but in B's pasture the roots are so nearly 

 dead that most of the moisture is used to resuscitate them, and very few 

 shoots are sent up. There are more showers, and the growth in A's pas- 

 ture is abundant but in B's the growth is low, and the hungry stock eat 

 the grass as fast as it comes up. Cold weather comes. ,B has to feed his 

 stock from this time till along in May, and being in poor condition they 

 require considerable grain to get them through the winter in any 

 decent shape. As stock continues to run in the pasture laying on fat, 

 and with the exception of some salt and occasionally on a cold stormy 

 night being taken to the barn and fed some hay, they require no atten- 

 tion till snow comes. If the snow is not very deep his horses will get 

 nearly all their living by pawing the snow away and eating the grass, 

 doing better than they did in fly time; and if the weather is not severe 

 Kis caftle will leave good hay and go out to nose in the snow for the 

 grass. 



His stock, except the work horses, milk cows, and stock fitting for 

 market, being in good flesh, require no grain through the winter. When 

 the snow goes off much of the blue grass is as green and fresh as' can be 

 and with the dry grass makes the best kind of feed. Nearly all kinds of 

 stock will leave the best hay for this feed. With the first warm weather 

 the grass starts up in A's pasture and good feed will be about a month 

 ahead of that in B's pasutre. 



At the middle of May B's stock is in no better condition than A's, and 

 they have eaten twice as much hay, corn fodder, ensilage, frain or other 

 expensive feeds. 



These may be extreme cases, but I think similar ones can easily be 

 found. Which of the two do you think is financially ahead? Which has 

 the most enjoyment in tending his stock? Linn county land is high but 

 extra help is not very plentiful or cheap and is not always of the first 

 quality. I do not wish to be understood to recommend a slipshod manner 

 of farming. Grass is a thing that canbe neglected. The way to grow It 

 profitably is to let it alone — just let it grow. 



Another use for a pasture is for a health resort, and if it were used 

 more for this there would be fewer diseased animals. I would not say 

 a word against a veterinarian. A good one is a blessing to any com- 

 munity. 



