26 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 380 



times is the slowness with which pasture lands frequently respond to treatment 

 and the difficulties involved in measuring the magnitude of the response. It 

 may take one or more years for top-dressed materials to produce their full effect, 

 and reseeded pastures require most of one full season's growth before they are 

 ■well established. As a result, farmers have become somewhat impatient with 

 pasture improvement practices and have not fully appreciated their worth. 



The historical development of agriculture in Massachusetts was accurately 

 .summarized fifty years ago by one Professor Whitcher, when he wrote: 



First we have the so-called period of inexhaustible fertility, when it 

 was thought that the soil would continue to yield abundant crops in- 

 definitely, without the application of fertilizer. Then we have the period 

 of exhaustion, when the soil has become exhausted of plant food and 

 will no longer produce a good crop. Then comes the third period, the 

 period of renovation, when we are asking how we can overcome the results 

 of the errors of previous methods. ^i 



Pasture lands in Massachusetts have already passed through the first and second 

 periods and they are just entering the third period at the present time. 



PRESENT DAY PASTURES ~ THEIR CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



Since agricultural leaders first attacked the problem of pasture improvement 

 in the nineteenth century, conditions have materially changed. Fertilizer sub- 

 stances which were either non-existent or scarce and expensive in former days 

 are at present available in practically unlimited quantities and at relatively low 

 cost. Our present-day knowledge of the soil and plant sciences, although by no 

 means exhaustive, nevertheless offers plausible explanations for phenomena which 

 puzzled our nineteenth century predecessors. It is desirable, therefore, to examine 

 the observations and conclusions of these earlier workers, in the light of present- 

 day theories and information. It would be a serious omission if the early work 

 in the field of pasture improvement were ignored or slighted, because the apparent 

 accuracy of much of this work is amazing. 



The following discussion is an attempt to integrate that which appears to be 

 the best in nineteenth century thinking with that which appears to be the best 

 in twentieth century thinking as it relates to the problem of pasture improve- 

 ment in Massachusetts. The problem is considered from the standpoint of the 

 four principal cultural factors which determine the productivity and usefulness 

 of pastures in Massachusetts — the soil, the grazing system, the pasture plant, 

 and the climate. 



The Soil 



In reviewing the history of pastures in Massachusetts, the one significant fact 

 which stands out above all others is that the soil, in terms of soil fertility, has been 

 the chief limiting factor to successful pasture culture. 



A satisfactory explanation of why this was true may be found when one con- 

 siders the fundamental nature of the soils themselves, a subject which has already 

 been discussed in some detail. If this explanation is true for the past, and the 

 writer on the basis of his studies and experience thoroughly believes that it is, 

 then soil fertility must still be one of the most important limiting factors in pasture 

 culture since it is practically impossible to change the fundamental character of 

 a soil. 



Before discussing soil fertility, a definition or an explanation of what is meant 



SlMass. State Bd. Agric. 38th Annual Report (1890), p. IS. 



