30 MISC. PUBLICATION 194, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



trolled burning is usually harmful. Much depends upon the kind of 

 vegetation, the time of the year, and the soil and weather conditions 

 when burning takes place. Pastures and ranges are burned over for 

 various reasons such as: To destroy dead herbage which was uncon- 

 sumed the previous season and remains to interfere with the grazing 

 of new growth; to control weeds and brush which otherwise might 

 replace the desirable pasture plants; and to destroy pine needles and 

 other forest litter wliich tend to smother out the forage plants on cut- 

 over timber land. When fire is so used, much care should be exercised 

 to prevent its spread to adjacent fields, forests, and farmsteads where 

 the flames might destroy timber or other valuable property. 



Experimental evidence indicates that good tame pastures of 

 introduced grasses are usually injured by burning at any time of the 

 year. At the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station a bluegrass 

 pasture burned over March 9 when the soil was frozen produced 52 

 percent less forage the following summer than unburned areas, and 

 an adjacent area burned May 11, when the soil was thawed out, 

 produced 71 percent less. Weeds were much more abundant on the 

 burned than on unburned areas. 



Native grasses apparently are not injured as much by fire as the 

 introduced grasses. Annual burning of the native bluestem pastures 

 of Kansas, March 20, reduced the yield of grass about 32.5 percent, 

 but when burned in alternate years the reduction in yield was only 

 3.5 percent. Burning in late spring was also effective in destroying 

 the herbaceous weeds and the coralberry or buckbrush. These ex- 

 periments of the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station indicate 

 that burning bluestem pastures in alternate years or less often may 

 result in more uniform grazing, especially on rough land, by removing 

 the dead grass, weeds, and brush. 



The Colorado Agricidtural Experiment Station found burning an 

 effective and economical method of clearing range lands of sagebrush. 

 Land thus cleared of sagebrush increased its production of forage 

 grasses 238 to 336 percent in two years. That the grazing value of 

 cut-over lands in the Gidf Coast region, especially longleaf pinelands, 

 is increased by burning at the proper time of the year has been 

 demonstrated in both Florida and Mississippi. At McNeill, Miss., 

 the average seasonal gains for an 11-year period of cattle grazing 

 about 8 months of the year were 46 percent larger on burned than on 

 unburned pastures. 



DRAINAGE 



Unless pasture land is exceptionally productive, the expense of tile 

 drainage over any considerable area is rarely warranted. There are, 

 however, many instances where seepage from the higher land renders 

 unproductive small areas on the slope above water courses or ditches. 

 In such areas sedges, rushes, and other undesirable grazing plants 

 predominate. Short lines of tile laid above this wet spot and opening 

 into the ditch below may be justified in the increased productiveness 

 that results. Often open ditches may be constructed to catch the 

 subsurface water as it comes dowTi the liill. Such ditches, however, 

 are more or less unsatisfactory because of their danger to the grazing 

 animals and the possibihty of their developing into guUies. 



