SOD-BOUND; HOW GRASSES GROW 21 



pasture of a sod, a dense mass of decaying stems, leaves 

 and rootlets, with their accompanying bacterial flora add- 

 ing nitrogen to the soil to promote life in the living stems. 

 The lesson is plain; do not overstock young grassland; 

 let it grow rank enough so that part of the grass may 

 fall to the ground and decay to start the development of 

 these life-giving bacteria. The work may also be greatly 

 expedited by scattering manure over the newly-made pas- 

 ture land. 



DO PASTURES BECOME "SOD-BOUND" ? 



A common belief among farmers is that pastures fail 

 to produce as well as they should sometimes after stand- 

 ing for a term of years because they have become "sod- 

 bound;" that is, too many plants are established to a 

 square foot. Probably this is seldom, if ever, true. The 

 pasture declines not because of over population but be- 

 cause of the using up of its available plant food. To test 

 the matter, take the worst bit of dense pasture sod you 

 can find and feed it, either with manure or with nitrate 

 of soda (at the rate of about y pound to the square rod) 

 and see if it does not at once immensely improve and 

 grow perhaps four times as much forage as will grow on 

 the adjoining land unfertilized. To plow that sod, kill- 

 ing the grasses and letting their stems and roots decay in 

 the soil, would also fill the land with nitrogen, but it 

 would take years to restore as good a set of grass as was 

 already there, needing only to be fed. 



HOW GRASSES GROW. 



A curious and distinguishing trait of grasses is their 

 manner of growth. Most plants grow from the unfolding 



