484 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



cases where farmers feared that combustion would take place and undertook 

 to take the hay out, with the result that it took fire even in hauling it to the 

 field. When this occurs it is usually too late to do anything. 



We mention all this out of perhaps too abundant caution; but if it will 

 lead to farmers keeping their hay as loose as possible in the field, avoiding 

 wet bunches, and where these are unavoidable throwing them to the out- 

 side, and avoiding putting hay brought late in the evening in the center of 

 the barn, then this article will have served its purpose. 



Putting up clover or alfalfa hay is a fine art in which comparatively few 

 excel. It can not be taught on paper. It must be learned by actual experi- 

 ence in the field, and when a man has a large hay crop on hand he needs to 

 have some of the qualifications of a first-class general and weather prophet 

 besides, in order to get the very best results possible. 



USE AND ABUSE OF PASTURES. 



Farmers'' Review. 



Looking over the pastures on many farms it will be observed that there 

 are numerous heavy growths in clumps over the surface. These are simply 

 manured spots and they should teach the owners a lesson . The green places, 

 heavily covered with rank grass, tell where the droppings of pastured 

 animals have fallen and fertilized the soil. They tell what might be the 

 condition of the entire field were the soil similarly rich everywhere. They 

 tell another story, too. The fact that certain spots are luxuriantly clad 

 means as a rule that the bulk of the pasture has been barebitten. This is a 

 common sin amongst us. After the long winter, when dry feed has been 

 used in tremendous quantities and the animals are suffering for succulent 

 food, there is great temptation in the green supplies of the pasture and the 

 life is forthwith eaten out of the field. In many instances the cattle are 

 turned on too early and the growth is checked; in more instances they are 

 allowed to eat too closely and when the summer sun strikes hotly, the roots, 

 unsheltered by heavy growth, are dried out and die. The pasture so treated 

 becomes brown and bare, and next year the growth is thin except upon the 

 parts that have been mulched by droppings. Again, where better care is 

 taken of the pasture in spring and early summer, the cattle are allowed to 

 eat the new green growths too bare in the fall after refreshing rains have 

 fallen. The consequence is that the grass roots are illy protected for winter 

 and besides this there is no grass for winter use. On the contrary, where 

 the fall growth is allowed to become long and cures in that condition at the 

 first breath of winter, roots are duly protected and cattle and horses or other 

 animals afforded a wonderfully useful bite on fine days in winter. 



There is a wrong impression prevalent that grass costs nothing. On the 

 contrary, it is often extremely dear food, judged from the appearance of 

 many pastures. Short growths of grass tell that the field has been robbed 

 year after year, for animals remove plant food with every bite of grass they 



