SEEDING TO FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 29 
periods. It is difficult to prepare low-lying wet soils for cereals in 
the early spring, and river flats are apt to be badly washed and 
furrowed by floods unless retained by sods. The annual deposit of 
sediment from spring freshets usually maintains the fertility of 
river flats left in permanent meadow, and if the most suitable grasses 
are well-established large yields of good hay may be obtained for 
many years. 
Fertilizing meadows of long duration is common in Europe, 
less frequent in the eastern provinces of Canada, and not at all 
general inland. A dressing of well-rotted farmyard manure, applied 
in the early spring every two or three years is highly beneficial, and 
is the best way to maintain an upland meadow in good condition. 
The decaying manure spread over the surface forms a mulch that 
helps to retain the moisture. Clovers are often benefited by 
potash and gypsum or other form of lime, but are little affected 
by nitrogenous manures. Old meadows respond quickly to an 
application, at the commencement of the growing season, of nitrate 
of soda at the rate of about one hundred pounds per acre. On 
low-lying, naturally moist soil, good yields may be had by sowing 
every two or three years three or four hundred pounds per acre of 
mixed fertilizer or bone meal that is rich in nitrogen. 
Permanent pastures yield a small revenue when compared 
with thorough cultivation and alternate cropping. If used for soiling, 
ten acres of good Alfalfa will give as much nutritive fodder as forty 
~ acres in permanent pasture. The waste due to tramping is much 
greater in temporary pastures, such as Clover and Timothy, than 
in permanent pastures composed of grass mixtures, but the yield is 
usually much larger and the forage is more easily available to cattle. 
Permanent pastures are of greatest value for sheep. On land that 
is easily tillable and productive under alternate cropping, they are 
not recommended for cattle, unless it is impossible to procure labour 
to cultivate the land. 
Reseeding and renovating are seldom necessary when proper 
care is taken of a meadow and natural Winter protection is provided. 
On some soils it will be found, however, that where several kinds of 
grasses and clovers are sown, one or two sorts will. predominate, to 
the practical exclusion of the others. If a meadow of long duration 
or a permanent pasture is required, it may be necessary to supple- 
ment the kinds that have established themselves by re-seeding with 
other grasses. These must be selected with care and for a definite 
purpose; Red Top, for instance, might be chosen for bottom grass 
on moist lands where all other kinds except Timothy have been killed 
