1 86 FORAGE CROPS. 



excellent swine pasture. And the combination with 

 all the cereals in it is more frequently used in pro- 

 viding pasture for cattle and horses. 



2. The aim should be to keep the stock away 

 from these pastures when wet with rain, or even 

 with heavy dew, and more especially when they are 

 rank and advanced in growth. At such times tread- 

 ing will soil and bruise them much more than when 

 they are dry. 



3. If the pasture gets ahead of the live stock, 

 that is, if it becomes so abundant that much of it 

 cannot be consumed, it will serve an excellent pur- 

 pose if plowed under. But it ought to be thus 

 buried while yet succulent, else in sections deficient 

 in moisture it may not decay with sufficient rapidity. 



4. If these pastures could be eaten down, as it 

 were, at successive stages, that is to say, by cropping 

 them down and then removing the live stock entirely 

 until considerable growth had again been made, more 

 pasture would be secured than can be obtained by 

 constant grazing. But to manage them thus is not 

 always practicable. 



5. Winter rye may be sown with much pro- 

 priety immediately after the grazing of these pas- 

 tures has been completed, as it may then have a long 

 period of growth before the closing in of winter. 



6. At the Minnesota University experiment 

 farm, the author has met with encouraging success 

 in sowing grass seeds at the same time that the 

 grains were sown. A good stand of grass has thus 

 been obtained during successive years from timothy 

 and clover sown with peas and oats and eaten down 

 by sheep. The treading of the sheep on average 

 prairie soils thus sown would seem to be helpful 



