3O THE FORAGE AND FIBER CROPS IN AMERICA 



is an important factor in a proper system of husbandry. There 

 is an old Flemish proverb: "No grass, no cattle; no cattle, no 

 manure; no manure, no crops." Both scientific research and 

 farm practise confirm this proverb. 



Aside from the value of a rotation including grasses for im- 

 proving the crop-producing power of the soil, it is desirable 

 to plow up meadows and put the land into other crops for the 

 benefit of the meadows themselves. Insect enemies increase 

 from year to year. Weeds that produce seeds before the grass 

 is mown also increase. At the Cornell Station, out of 9,000 

 plants that had been grown separately 49.4 per cent, died during 

 the first two years after they had started. In field practise 

 the increasing compactness of the soil and the decreasing aera- 

 tion would both probably tend to reduce reproduction by under- 

 ground stems and therefore reduce the life of the meadow. 

 Whether succeeding generations of plants reproduced asexually 

 by the underground stems are weaker than those plants 

 produced by "seed has not been shown experimentally. The 

 fact that English pastures have remained permanently in grass 

 for 300 years suggests that asexual reproduction does not 

 weaken the vitality, although in these cases some re-seeding 

 has doubtless occurred. 



In some instances a timothy meadow reaches its best develop- 

 ment the second year after seeding or, in other words, the 

 largest yield of hay is obtained at the first cutting. Taking 

 the region adapted to the growth of timothy as a whole, how- 

 ever, it is probable that the best yields are obtained at the 

 second and third cuttings, or on the third and fourth years 

 from seeding. Either when sown alone or in combination with 

 red clover, therefore, a rotation in which timothy occupies 

 two or three crop years will give usually the best results so 

 far as the yield of hay is concerned, and probably also so far 

 as increasing the power of the soil to produce other crops. 

 When variations are made from this period it. is usually due 



