782 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The large majority of weeds that grow on good sod are like tramps — ■■ 

 come and are gone. One year you may think a certain weed has taken 

 a pasture, but the next year you can hardly find a weed of that kind. Do 

 not take this as a recommendation to let cockle burrs, button weeds, etc., 

 grow on cultivated land or to let the roads go unmowed weeds on cul- 

 tivated ground and on sod are two things, and the road does not need 

 enriching. 



So far we have considered more especially blue grass pastures, but 

 think most we have said will apply to any pasture. We do not expect 

 our ideal pasture to fully materialize, and of course conditions and 

 environments alter cases. 



There are some farms where nearly all the land is good farming lanfl 

 and the occupants have plenty of help within the family and so want 

 to farm all they can. But even in these cases ther© ought to be a good 

 pasture. A farm can hardly be kept up without stock, and stock cannot 

 be kept to advantage without pasture. Clover of various kinds and 

 timothy make a good pasture after the first year, but will not make as 

 good pasture at all seasons of the year as the blue grass. In the rota- 

 tion of crops pasturing will be very beneficial to the land. On most 

 farms there is land too rough or too wet and cold to make good farm 

 land, but it will make the best of pasture. There may be places where 

 it is so wet that only slough grass will grow, and one-half the tile it 

 would take to dry out these places for farming will put the ground in 

 excellent shape for pasture, and blue grass will work in very rapidly. We 

 would advise having at least some blue grass pasture and then finish 

 out with pasture of other grasses if necessary. We think the second 

 «rop of meadow, as a rule, should not b» mowed but pastured. Coming 

 at a time when usually the pastures are dry, and flies very annoying it 

 gives the stock fresh feed and the pastures a rest. 



We think on most farms a good permanent blue grass pasture will 

 net as much per acre and perhaps more than any other field. Do not 

 think you can get first-class pasture in two, five or even ten years. It 

 may take fifteen or twenty if the land has been farmed much. So be 

 slow about plowing up a good pasture. Hold to it as a ' treasure. De 

 not think of the great corn crop that field would yield but think of the 

 amount of feed the stock get off from it, with very little labor or 

 expense to you. 



