28 FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 



strong irritant. Its pollen is believed to cause hay fever. Ragwort 

 (Senecio Jacoboea), which is common in some parts ot 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 disagreeable 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 



