PASTURE CULTURE 15 



the soil wet enough to resist the action of the fire; ... if the land be 

 intended for pasture only, the trees are cut down, and after the fire has 

 destroyed the limbs, grass is sown, and the trunk of the trees are left to 

 rot, which in turn, turns to good manure and the pasture is durable. . . . 

 When the trees are burnt later in the summer, wheat or rye is sown, 

 mixed with the seeds of grass, on the new land. The seed is scattered on 

 the surface and raked in with a wooden or iron tooth rake, or a hoe. . . . 

 Sometimes a crop of Indian Corn is raised the first year, and another of 

 rye or wheat, the second year, and the land is sown with grass, which will 

 turn it into pasture or mowing the third year. ... It is not an uncommon 

 thing for people, who are used to this kind of husbandry, to bring a tract 

 of wilderness into grass for the first two crops; . . . Many husbandmen, 

 in the old towns, buy lots of new land, and get them cleared and brought 

 into grass, in this way, and pasture great numbers of cattle: the feed is 

 excellent and the cattle are soon fattened for market. ^^ 



It is significant that over much of the area laid down to grass, the grass seeding 

 was usually made directly after the forest cover was removed. In this way there 

 was little opportunity for the store of native fertility to be dissipated either 

 through crop removal or by soil erosion before the grass was established. The 

 existence of a large area of permanent pasture in the State today is probably 

 directly traceable to this practice, because it was observed years later that pastures 

 which were established on cultivated land deteriorated much more rapidly than 

 those which were laid down immediately after the removal of the forest trees.^* 

 Many of these original pasture areas produced many successive crops of grass 

 without the aid of soil amendments before exhibiting any signs of exhaustion. 



Importance of the Grass Crop to Nineteenth Century Agriculture 



During most of the nineteenth century the grass crop, including both hay and 

 pasturage, supported, either directly or indirectly, practically' all types of agri- 

 culture in Massachusetts. Directly, grass supplied most of the feed for the beef, 

 dairy, and sheep livestock industries, which flourished to a greater or less extent 

 over the course of the century; indirectly, grass supported other types of agri- 

 cultural enterprises in that it was the manure and by-products of the meat- 

 processing industries which supplied most of the fertility for the successful pro- 

 duction of tilled crops. The extensive raising of grain, the growing of different 

 market-garden crops near large cities, and the development of such special crops 

 as broomcorn, tobacco, and onions in the Connecticut Valley were made possible 

 only because manure and various other by-products of animal origin were used 

 as fertilizers in liberal quantities. Cattle were fed in the Connecticut Valley 

 many years even after the cattle-feeding enterprise itself was unprofitable, for the 

 sole purpose of producing manure for the culture of tilled crops.^^ 



A clear recognition of the important role played by the grass crop in the agri- 

 culture of Massachusetts is contained in a report made by the pasture committee 

 of the State Board of Agriculture in 1859. It read: 



The importance of the grass crop will be justly appreciated when it is 

 remembered that no other crop equals it in value, not even the cotton 

 crop of the South. It bears a similar relation to the other products of the 

 farm that agriculture bears to the other interests and occupations of 

 civilized communities. It is the basis of the farmer's success; it is his 

 first, his continued and last dependence. His milk, butter, cheese, bread, 

 meats, fruits, vegetables, the labor of his teams and his own labors, im- 

 mediately or remotely, are derived from and sustained by his crops of 

 grass.56 



5^The History of New Hampshire, III, 97. 



5''Mass. State Bd. Agric. 12th Annual Report (1864), Pt. I. p. 84. 



SSlbid., 9th Annual Report (1861), Pt. I, p. 93; 13th Annual Report (1865). Pt. I, p. 300. 



'^Ibid., 7th Annual Report (1859), Pt. I, p. 24. 



