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 



