28 FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 
strong irritant. Its pollen is believed to cause hay fever. Ragwort 
~ (Senecio Jacobea), which is common in some parts of the Atlantic 
provinces, has been shown to be the cause of the Pictou cattle disease. 
Like many other weeds poisonous to some kinds of stock and harmless 
to others, this is not injurious.to sheep. 
The objectionable flavour of weedy hay induces stalled animals, 
which have no option but to eat it or starve, to pick over their fodder 
and eat only the palatable part. To avoid this apparent waste, the 
cutting box is used to turn weedy fodder into cut feed. The feed 
so prepared is rendered unpalatable and often unwholesome by the 
weeds. Milch cows will eat only enough to allay hunger and will 
produce a gallon of milk of diasgreeable flavour instead of three 
gallons of good milk per day. Chronic ill-health and a condition of 
unthrift in the live stock, particularly in the cattle, is often found 
on a weed-infested farm. The value of a fodder crop may be reduced 
or even destroyed by weeds. In establishing a meadow then, it 
is most important to suppress objectionable weeds before the fodder 
crop seeds are sown. 
The duration of meadows and pastures depends on the kind 
of farming, soil and drainage. For naturally well-drained upland 
farms under mixed crops, short rotations with two years in Red 
Clover and grasses are recommended. As soon as the hay crop of 
the second year is removed, the meadow may be ploughed and 
fallowed for the balance of the year to suppress weeds. An application 
of farmyard manure, shallow ploughed or worked into the surface 
soil, should fit the land for spring planting with a hoed or other 
cleaning crop, which may be followed by a nurse crop of cereal 
grains, and again seeded to Red Clover and grasses for two years 
of meadow and pasture. 
Because of the scarcity of farm labour, less intensive systems 
of farming are popular in some districts. Large returns are obtained 
from Alfalfa with much less labour. Hardy strains, particularly of 
Variegated Alfalfa, are available, and when farmers get northern 
grown seed from the best strains they can count on satisfactory crops 
for years, provided the land is well drained and not infested with 
perennial weeds. In districts where the crop is protected by snow 
the danger of winter-killing is reduced. In the Niagara peninsula 
fields of Variegated Alfalfa of more than thirty years standing still 
produce large yields of fodder. Unless well protected, pure Alfalfa 
is apt to be killed out by severe winters and few fields continue to 
give satisfactory crops for more than five or six years. 
In wet, clayey soils and river flats it is often necessary or ex- 
pedient to leave the land to permanent meadows or pastures for long 
