20 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 380 



Early Attempts at Pasture Renovation 



It would seem that, if the seriousness of pasture deterioration were appre- 

 ciated and its causes understood, as appears to have been the case, something 

 would have been done to correct the situation. The answer is that something 

 was done. Many different systems of pasture renovation were tried out from 

 time to time during most of the nineteenth century and many of them were 

 highly successful. The difficulty was that none of these systems, even though 

 highly successful, was ever widely adopted. A variety of materials was used 

 from time to time, including ashes, gypsum, lime, bone meal, guano, manure, 

 compost, and muck, both as top-dressings and as amendments worked into the 

 soil by tillage. 



Henry Colnian*" in 1841 tells of a particularly successful farmer in Essex 

 County who regularly ploughed, manured, and seeded his pasture lands. In 

 1851 the chairman of the pasture committee of Essex County recommended the 

 use of gypsum as a top-dressing "on such land as is benefited by it," as the "best 

 and cheapest way of renovating pasture lands."*' The pasture committee for the 

 State Board of Agriculture*^ in 1859 advised using bones combined with wood 

 ashes if manure were not available. They also suggested top-dressing old pastures 

 with "from one to two bushels of plaster per acre; or twenty-five bushels of wood 

 ashes per acre, where plaster refuses to operate"; but in most instances the com- 

 mittee favored ploughing and reseeding as opposed to top-dressing. They rec- 

 ognized, however, that ploughing "will be found of little avail — except to destroy 

 weeds and bushes — without a suitable application of manure." They suggested 

 the following plan for the renovation of old pastures: 



Set apart four or five lots of convenient size; plough and plant No. 1 

 with corn, applying enough manure to produce a good crop. The next year 

 sow the same with wheat or barle^', and stock down to grass. Plant and 

 treat No. 2 with the same manure, and so continue, planting one lot and 

 stocking down one lot each year, until all are stocked down to grass. At 

 the end of six years the five lots will have been completely renovated, and 

 the same course commenced for a second turn. Thus the system may be 

 indefinitely continued, yielding an unbroken succession of remunerative 

 crops and pasturage of the finest quality. 



In the light of present-day knowledge of soils and soil fertility in Massachusetts, 

 this committee in 1859, in the opinion of some at least, were sounder and more 

 logical in their recommendation than perhaps they themselves realized. 



There is considerable evidence that tillage was rather widely practiced as well 

 as recommended as a means of pasture improvement. A report*^ frcm Plymouth 

 County in 1865 stated that a considerable portion of the corn and most of the 

 rye that \vas raised was grown on pasture land "to rid it of bushes and briars." 

 The supervisor for pasture improvement for the same county in 1866 declared 

 that "the process of mowing bushes is merely conservative, having, like all con- 

 servatism, n> higher aim than that of keeping 'things as they are.' For permanent 

 improvement more radical measures are necessary, and the plough, where it can 

 be used, is the most approved agency for initiating them."*-* 



A farmer in Worcester County in 1877 described a system that he had been 

 following to improve his worn-out pasture land, which consisted of removing 

 the stones, ploughing, cultivating, manuring, and reseeding. "In this way," 

 he wrote, "I expect to restore my pastures to that abundant supply of sweet, 

 milk-producing grass that was produced so abundantly in former years. "*5 



^"Agriculture of Massachusetts, 4th Report (1841), p. 398. 

 S^Mass. Agricultural Societies Transactions (1851), p. 45. 

 82Mass. State Bd. Agric. 7th Annual Report (1859), Pt. I, p. 27. 

 SSlbid., 13th Annual Report (1865), Pt. I, p. 280. 

 *''lbid., 14th Annual Report (1866), Pt. II, p. 19. 

 *5lbid.. 2Sth Annual Report (1877), Pt. I., p. 299. 



