CHAPTER XI 

 THE MAKING OF A MEADOW 



331. The Essentials of a Good Meadow. One of the 



first essentials of a good meadow is that it be composed of 

 plants that cure readily into hay, with as little loss as possible 

 of leaves and other tender parts. Slowness in curing is 

 likely to result in moldy or spoiled hay, while those plants 

 which become brittle 'in curing break up readily in handling 

 and a large part of the best food material is lost. The 

 meadow should produce a good yield of palatable and nutri- 

 tious hay. The plants which compose it should be thick 

 enough to keep down weeds and to prevent the stems from 

 growing so coarse that they are not eaten readily by stock. 

 They should form a smooth, even turf rather than a bunchy 

 one, as the bunches will soon become high enough to inter- 

 fere with haying machinery. The field should be fairly 

 level and free from stones and other obstructions, so that the 

 hay crop can be harvested readily and economically. 



332. The Formation of the Meadow. About one fourth 

 of the land from which a hay crop is annually harvested is 

 native meadow on which little or no attempt at improvement 

 has been made. The Census of 1910 reports about seven- 

 teen milUon acres of wild grasses cut for hay. This native 

 meadow is mostly in the more newly settled portions of the 

 West. In the Central and Eastern states it has largely 

 been replaced by the tame grasses and clovers, a large acre- 

 age of which is seeded every year for meadows and pastures. 

 While specific directions for preparing the land and seeding 

 will be given in the discussion of the more important meadow 

 plants, some of the general principles which apply to the 

 establishment of a meadow can best be stated here. 



260 



