CATTLE FOOD. 299 



from early spring to late autumn, and if kept ungrazed during 

 the latter summer and autumn, where the ground is bare of snow, 

 and the climate mild, make an excellent winter forage, equal, per- 

 haps, to the best of hay. 



Beside these, there are varieties of local grasses, which grow 

 spontaneously in different parts of the country, quite nutritious 

 in substance, and on which cattle thrive well. The quality of 

 such grasses has only to be tested by use, to determine the 

 policy of retaining them. Timothy, and red clover, usually 

 sown together for heavy crops, make palatable pasturage for cat- 

 tle, but are less relished, unless when young and fresh. When 

 closely cut, for hay, they are longer in making a new growth than 

 the pasture grasses we have described. They fail in making a close 

 turf, like the others, but add to the variety of a well stocked pas- 

 ture, and, to a certain extent, are desirable. So it is with the 

 orchard grass, and some other varieties, that are sometimes mixed 

 with them. 



Many of the prairie grasses are valuable while in their spring 

 and summer growth. There are none whatever on which, early 

 in the season, stock thrive so rapidly as on some of these. "We 

 have known instances in which cattle, actually "on the lift," from 

 their wretched winter fare, turned upon them early in the season, 

 have become fair beef in six or eight weeks. They are wonder- 

 fully nutritious, both in flesh, and milk. But the difficulty with 

 these grasses is, as they ripen, they grow woody, and tough, thus 

 becoming distasteful to the cattle, and the early autumnal frosts 

 kill them utterly, when all their nutritive quality is destroyed. 

 By close and continuous feeding from year to year, they grad- 

 ually die out, and the land works into the "tame" grasses. The 

 plowing and thorough cultivation of the land, destroys the wild 

 grass altogether, and then, with seeding, other and better kinds 

 quickly take their place. "We have already referred to the native 

 grasses far West, and South, on which the buffalo ranges, which 



