24 FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 
made not later than the third week in August. After such autumn 
cutting the young meadow should not be pastured. Early the fol- 
lowing spring, if the land is sufficiently well drained, the use of a 
heavy roller is often beneficial. 
On the drier prairie soils, where a nurse crop may not be used, 
two or three cuttings with a mowing machine will suppress the weeds 
and conserve the moisture, but the crop should not be cut after the 
middle of August. 
The lack of winter protection for young meadows is the most 
common cause of reduced yields and inferior quality of hay. During 
dry seasons, when natural pastures and fodder crops are short, the 
use of newly seeded meadows immediately the nurse crop is removed 
sometimes seems unavoidable, even when the seedling plants are 
struggling for existence and much reduced in vigour by their com- 
petition with a nurse crop that has robbed them of moisture rather 
than protected them. It is under just such conditions that pasturing 
is most disastrous. For every pound of forage taken from the young 
plants more than ten pounds are lost in the hay crop; the stand will 
be thinner and the quality of the hay poorer. The young plants 
should completely hide the ground and show a growth of six inches 
or more before the autumn season is past. Only when there is 
danger of smothering the crop from a rank growth of clover, which 
rarely occurs, is there any advantage in pasturing a young meadow 
the first year. 
Grasses and other fodder plants should be cut when the 
crop has reached its maximum value, in yield and quality, for cured 
hay; the effect on the aftermath or succeeding crops should also 
be considered. The main natural function of the plant is to repro- 
duce itself. Until its seed-bearing organs have been fertilized, it 
collects nutriment and stores it up in its tissues for the development 
and maturing of seeds. As soon as the flower is fertilized, the seed 
draws on the store of nourishment in the stems and leaves and the 
plant begins to harden. With some kinds of fodder plants, such as 
Blue-joint Grass, that depend largely on their roots for reproduction 
and bear few seeds, the hardening of the plant is less pronounced; but 
in nearly all the most valuable kinds the change from succulent and 
pliable tissues to brittle and woody stems and leaves is rapid and 
marked. Even before fertilization, many of the fodder plants, such 
as Alfalfa, Western Rye Grass and Timothy, commence to harden. 
If cut before the flowers are ripe for fertilization, the plant will 
renew its efforts to reproduce itself, and the aftermath or second crop 
