326 MEADO\VS AND PASTURES 



practice. Weeds are encouraged, since through animals 

 gnawing the palatable grasses weeds get started on the 

 almost bare land, then the soil has too little shade and 

 the sun dries, it out badly. Probably twice as much 

 available moisture is retained in the pasture that is al- 

 lowed to get a good strong start in the spring, as is found 

 in the pasture grazed down hard from the start. In 

 short, make a soil mulch of the grass itself. You can 

 not cultivate grass land; the one thing probably that 

 you can do to help retain moisture is to allow the grass 

 to mulch the ground. And even here one must use 

 discretion. 



Conditions vary according to localities. There are 

 moist regions where it is safe to pasture rather closely 

 where, in fact, the grass falls and becomes matted to- 

 gether, so that it no doubt loses its sweetness if not 

 grazed fairly close. Most of America, however, has hot 

 suns and dry weather so that the pastures need moisture 

 more than any other thing, .and the one way to main- 

 tain it is to avoid close grazing until in midsummer or 

 a little later, when it becomes necessary. I have seen 

 bluegrass in north Missouri make a dense mat a foot 

 thick over the ground and cattle fattened well on it. On 

 the other hand Prof. Lyman Carrier of the Virginia 

 station writes as follows : 



"I have been making some notes on pasture management in this 

 part of the state and a few things seem to be of importance. One 

 is that heavy pasturing in this section is better than light. This 

 seems to be contrary to the general opinion of writers on the subject. 

 We can ruin our pastures by leaving them ungrazed for a year or 

 two. I do not mean to say that the pasture should be grazed early 

 in the spring before the grass gets a good start or late in the fall 



