18 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 380 



but they have gradually deteriorated. . . . They will not carry the stock 

 of former years; the quality of the grasses is not so good, and they will not 

 produce so good cattle, or butter, or milk.^^ 



Hampshire County, 1877. 



It seems to be a very important question here in New England, how 

 shall we best improve our pasture-lands. . . . They were formerly cropped 

 with wheat, rye, and corn, until reduced too low to make it pay. Then 

 they were given up to pasture; and the constant drain upon them since, 

 in the form of beef, butter, cheese, mutton and wool, has reduced them, 

 so that they hardly pay for fencing and bushing, to say nothing of taxes, 

 and interest on capital. There are hundreds of acres in my vicinity, on 

 which I have seen good crops of grain growing, that are now abandoned 

 to brush and wood; . . . ™ 



State as a whole, 1884. 



. . . besides this, many farmers have been in the habit of cultivating 

 their smoother land as long as it would bear a remunerating crop, applying 

 as little manure as would possibly serve, and then laying it down to grass, 

 under rye, oats, or barley, so as to get the last ounce of nutriment from the 

 soil. This having been pretty well accomplished, a crop or two of hay 

 is taken from it, and the land is then abandoned in an exhausted condition 

 for a number of years to pasture, and from land thus treated cattle are 

 expected to derive their support for four or five months; they go on it in 

 lean condition in May, and come from it in November as poor as they went 

 out. How to increase the productiveness of these pastures so that they 

 shall not only hold their own, but carry more stock is the question. ''i 



Pastures have continued to deteriorate since 1884 even up to the present, but 

 since that date fewer references to their condition are available. One reason for 

 this may be the much greater dependence since that time on commercial fertilizers 

 as a source of fertility for tilled crops rather than on barnyard manure which came 

 indirectly from the grass crop. Another reason is probably the increasing ten- 

 dency during recent years to rely on periodically reseeded pastures and annual 

 pastures for the main supply of pasturage rather than on permanent pastures. 

 Still a third explanation may be the limited use in some sections of top-dressed 

 fertilizers on permanent pastures, which in certain instances has greatly improved 

 their condition. 



Pasture Exhaustion and Land Abandonment 



Permanent pasture was in the past and for that matter still is the last use to 

 which land is put before it reverts to timber. That much of this land was badly 

 depleted before being given over to pastures and that land abandonment quickly 

 followed, is reported from Franklin County in 1865. Speaking of general practices 

 in "hill towns", this report stated: 



The main feature in these towns is expressively termed 'skinning,' 

 cutting of? wood and timber, selling hay, and sometimes what little grain 

 they raise, to the river farmers, 'running' their mowing lands and then 

 turning them into pasturage. In short, taking all they can from the land 

 and returning nothing. ... In many of the hill towns population is 

 diminishing. Many houses are unoccupied, and going to decay, and there 

 is a general lack of thrift and enterprise among the farmers.''^ 



By 1872, according to another writer, "The border settler in New England 

 twenty years ago is close to the forest now. Half-made clearings are again growing 

 up, and log-cabins are tenantless. Hills once covered with sheep are moss- 



*9Ma8S. State Bd. Agric. 20th Annual Report (1872), Pt. I. p. 202. 

 '^Ibid., 25th Annual Report (1877), Pt. I, p. 299. 

 'Ubid., 32d Annual Report (1884). p. 83. 

 ■'^Ibid.. 13th Annual Report (1865). Pt. I, p. 307. 



