94 IMPROVEMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF FARM PASTURES 



One pasture was disked once each spring with an ordinary disk 

 harrow. As a check a similar pasture was untreated. The 

 animals were kept in one pasture at a time and every ten days 

 they were changed from one field to the other. 



Another area was disked with the ordinary disk harrow, 

 whereas the adjoining area was untreated. The animals grazed 

 were likewise alternated every ten days from the one field to the 

 other. 



Still another pasture lot was both disked and harrowed, the 

 treatment being somewhat severe. An untreated field served 

 as a check, and the animals grazed were alternated from the 

 one enclosure to the other every twenty days. 



Two paddocks were not treated. These plots were grazed 

 continuously throughout the summer, but the one was cropped 

 from two to three times more heavily than the other. 



Additional small plots were established from which the herb- 

 age was removed by cutting with a lawn mower, and the dry 

 weight of the harvest was recorded. These plots were harrowed 

 or otherwise treated to correspond more or less with the treat- 

 ment of the pastured areas. 



Alternate versus Continuous Grazing. — Carrier and Oakley 

 point out that the division of pastures with a view to giving 

 each part a rest by alternate cropping during the growing season 

 has long been recommended as a means of increasing their graz- 

 ing capacity. That such a system works out satisfactorily on 

 bunchgrass lands in the far West has been clearly demonstrated 

 by the writer;^ but these findings do not at all prove what may 

 be the results on sodland pastures. 



Carrier and Oakley found only a slight difference in the forage 

 yield on bluegrass pasture . They conclude : 



While the results of these three years will not settle the question of alternate 

 or continuous grazing for all time, nor for all conditions, they at least show very 

 clearly that the unqualified recommendation of alternate grazing is not justi- 

 fied. We even believe that they strongly indicate the slight value of this 

 method in solving the present pasture problems of Virginia. 



' Sampson, Arthur W., "Range Improvement by Deferred and Rotation Graz- 

 ing." U. S. Dept. of Agr. Bui. 34, 1913. 



