514- THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPAEDIA. 



subsoil, will generally yield a better profit from the dairy, and from the 

 rearing of young cattle. Dry hilly pastures are most suited to sheep. 

 The grazing of land by a mixed stock of cattle, sheep, and horses results 

 in the land being more evenly grazed than where one kind only is kept. 

 Where, however, many sheep are grazed with cattle, as they pick out all 

 the finest of the grasses and clovers with their narrow noses, the cattle 

 will not thrive so well. But sheep, on the other hand, eat with avidity 

 and impunity many weeds which cattle dislike and avoid. Many 

 pastures grazed only with cattle are in spring time perfectly in bloom 

 with weeds, which a few sheep mixed with the cattle would keep down. 

 Horses when kept in a pasture to themselves are very unlevel grazers, 

 but a few kept in a large cattle pasture will graze the rank places where 

 cattle have left their manure and about gateplaces where the land has 

 been trampled. 



It is better not to graze pastures very closely in any season of the 

 year. Pastures when bare are much more likely to suffer from either 

 drought or cold than when covered with grass two or three inches deep, 

 and they grow much more slowly. All plants feed from the leaf as well 

 as the root, and when cropped too closely the power of drawing nourish- 

 ment and attracting moisture from the air is much lessened. Young turf 

 requires specially careful grazing ; but it must be remembered that if 

 allowed to get ahead in the early summer, it becomes overgrown and 

 .benty, and is rejected by cattle and sheep. And the aftergrowth of grass is 

 'hindered throughout the year by the old dry grass remaining on the land. 



Great improvements have been made in many pastures by drainage and 

 top-dressing with bones, lime, guano, or other manures a subject which 

 will be treated of under the head of draining and manures. 



Coarse weeds growing on pastures may be checked by mowing. The 

 common thistle may be thoroughly checked by persistent spudding or 

 drawing ; but in those pastures where it is very abundant this would be 

 an endless task, and mowing is resorted to before the thistle is fully in 

 flower. Nettles which are a sign of high condition, and often indicate 

 the former site of a garden, may also be destroyed by repeated mowing. 



Grass land should be well grazed down in the early part of the 

 summer, as if left to grow too long it becomes unpalatable to stock. In a very 

 growing season, when grass gets ahead, and stock cannot be bought with 

 a prospect of paying for their keep, the long grass which remains should 

 be mown off and made into hay whenever the weather is suitable, or if not 

 over plentiful, allowed to lie as " mulch " of which practice good examples 

 occurred at the Ontario Experimental Farm in 1883. 



