MANAGEMENT OF BLUEGRASS PASTURES 93 



3. The kind of plants in the pasture has much to do with its value. 



4. There is no relation between botanical composition of the herbage of a 

 pasture and its feeding value. 



5. Disk the pasture. 



6. There is no need of harrowing the pasture as the ground is pulverized 

 by the grazing of the stock. 



7. Keep the weeds out by grazing the pasture with sheep. 



8. Sheep should not be used on grassland to destroy weeds, for their sharp 

 noses permit them to seek out and destroy the young sprouting grass. 



9. Maintain the productivity of the pasture by applying a top dressing 

 of manure and fertilizers. 



10. Permanent pastures are kept productive because of the droppings from 

 the animals grazed. 



11. Reseed the pasture to sod grasses and clovers. 



12. Allow the plants to go to seed in order that the stand may be maintained. 



In view of the conflicting directions offered, it is not sur- 

 prising that the grazing capacity of many a farm paddock is 

 decHning sharply. Especially is this true where the sodgrasses 

 do not grow. As a field for investigation, few Hues of farm re- 

 search offer greater possibilities of service than does that of the 

 farm pasture. 



It is the aim in the following pages to point out methods of 

 improvement which have been thoroughly tested in practice 

 and are known to be safe. 



Management of Bluegrass Pastures. — East of the Great 

 Plains, north of Arkansas and North Carolina, and southward 

 in the cooler mountains, Kentucky bluegrass, sometimes called 

 Junegrass, is the pasture plant par excellence. It is an aggressive 

 species in favorable soils and climate, where it usually forms a 

 complete sod. 



Carrier and Oakley, working at the Virginia Station,^ con- 

 ducted fundamental investigations relative to methods of crop- 

 ping and treating representative selected pasture lots. The 

 plan of study was based on the prevailing practices of farmers 

 of the State and made use of methods developed by the investi- 

 gators themselves. 



1 Carrier, Lyman, and Oakley, R. A., "The Management of Bluegrass Pastures." 

 Va. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 204, 1914. 



