302 GRASSES OF IOWA. 



buy, ra* her than in the original crude 'and bulky state, that 

 the people do not want to buy. ' ' 



In the long run the farmer will make most money who 

 devotes his fields to the growing of forage crops to feed to 

 dairy cows, furnish beef, making use of all the raw products 

 at home, thereby saving not only much of the cost of transpor- 

 tation, but maintaining the fertility of the soil. By doing so 

 the farmers will maintain their pre-eminence in agricultural 

 lines. The valuable farm lands of Iowa must be changed to 

 something more productive than the growing of cereal crops 

 for export sale. The Iowa farmer, whose land is worth $60 per 

 acre, cannot compete with the Dakota farmer, whose land is 

 worth only !?10 1 3 815, in the growing of wheat. The stock 

 and dairy industries are the avenues which will enable the 

 farmer to succeed. Anything that will enhance the productive 

 capacity of our soils for the production cf forage conditions 

 will help the Iowa farmer. 



We shall therefore briefly discuss some of the more promi- 

 nent grasses and the maintenance of pastures. The chief glory 

 of our pastures and meadows resides in the turf, which is con- 

 stantly being formed. Professor Brewer* says: "It is believed 

 that permanent pastures, if well handled, continue to grow 

 better for fifty years or a hundred years; some say for much 

 longer than that. It is nearly forty years since I was in Eng- 

 land, but I well remember that English farmers told me that a 

 pasture or meadow had to be at least twenty-five years old to 

 be good, and was not really excellent until the third or fourth 

 rental (forty-two or sixty-three years) at least. There was no 

 other one feature in English scenery that so impressed me as 

 the English turf, whether seen in either the pastures or the 

 parks and lawns. Many of the parks are in fact pastures. 

 One sees sheep everywhere. Even in the play grounds of the 

 colleges and schools one sees flecks of sheep, kept there for 

 the benefit of the turf . When Connecticut public opinion shall 

 protect sheep on the Yale athletic fields from dogs, then all of 

 Contecticut will ba able to grow more of the mutton it con- 

 sumes and the state will be richer by very many millions of 

 dollars. " 



"Precisely so with the turf grasses. A sirg'e species may 

 exist as numerous varieties, some more robust or aggressive, 

 others less so, having different capacities to withstand too wet 



♦Rep. Conn. Board of Agrl. 1896: 35. 



