PASTURE CULTURE 33 



shallow-rooted permanent pasture plants — principally native white clover — to 

 thrive. Bordley continued, "The expense of seed for renewing grass is thought 

 too much of by farmers. It is a trifle, when opposed by the advantages gained." 



Many observations on the benefits of tillage to grasslands have also been 

 recorded in Massachusetts. Henry Colman in 1841 wrote: 



Without a question, where land has become, as it is termed, 'bound 

 out', the sward matted, and the herbage fine, small and stunted, much 

 would be gained by simply turning it over, keeping the sward unbroken, 

 harrowing it and freely sowing grass seed upon it, especially with the 

 application of ashes or plaster, or some other alkaline substance ... to 

 get the greatest yield, an occasional manuring, and the cultivation of the 

 soil so as to break up its tenacity and expose it freely to the influence of 

 sun and air are indispensable. The coarse grasses will soon come in again 

 if the land is not cultivated and manured. ^^ 



The following quotation, taken from the Massachusetts State Board of Agri- 

 culture report for 1871, on the necessity of periodically plowing grasslands is 

 typical of a number which appear from time to time from 1853 through to 1906: 



If land is moist and thoroughly stocked, it may be kept in good condition 

 for several years by a judicious top-dressing. But my own experience is 

 that top-dressing cannot be applied to high lands with so good a result. 

 Manage as we may, in from three to five years the crop grows less, the 

 wild grass begins to creep in, and from five to eight years the land needs 

 turning over and reseeding.ii^ 



Many experiments in top-dressing both hay lands and pasture with fertilizers 

 have been carried on from time to time in Massachusetts. A marked improve- 

 ment has usually been obtained in both quality and quantity of feed produced, 

 but in no instance have the results indicated that top-dressed applications of 

 fertilizer materials were nearly as effective as plowing, fertilizing, and reseeding. 

 In experiments reported by W. P. Brooks^i^ from the Massachusetts Station in 

 1903, hay top-dressed with manure yielded something over 5,600 pounds per 

 acre; while hay land which was manured, plowed, and reseeded, yielded 10,000 

 pounds per acre. Although much encouraged by his first results from the use of 

 top-dressed fertilizers, he finally concluded that their use could extend the useful 

 life of hay sods only a year or two. 



Levi Stockbridge, one of the keenest agricultural men of his day, whose judg- 

 ment concerning practical agricultural matters in Massachusetts was unsur- 

 passed, declared in 1872: "... my experience and observations are, that there 

 is no grass-land in Massachusetts but what ought to be ploughed once in ten 

 years. "11* There is a striking similarity in Stockbridge's statement to one made 

 in 1939 by Sir George Stapledon, one of the world's leading pasture authorities, 

 discussing the grasslands of England. Sir George writes: 



In this country, and even on the very best grassland soils, I do not 

 believe there is a single field that would not benefit from periodic breaking. 

 I do not say that it would be possible or desirable, to plough into every 

 single acre of permanent grass in the country: but this is my point. 



The sods below all permanent grass, if not becoming actually matted, 

 at least attain to a sort of "pot bound" condition after the lapse of a suffi- 

 cient number of years; on the best soils and under the best and most 

 intelligently grazed swards this condition may take thirty, forty, fifty or 

 sixty years to develop. On poorer soils, and under less intensive grazing 

 ten to fifteen years will be long enough for an advanced pot-boundness 

 to show itself. Some soils cannot carry decent grass for longer than four 

 to six years . . . the concensus of opinion everywhere is that animals are 



^1 ^Agriculture of Massachusetts, 4th Report (1841), p. 239. 



ll^Mass. State Bd. Agric. 19th Annual Report (1871), Pt. II, p. 22. 



ll'^Hatch Expt. Sta. (Mass. Agric. College), 16th Annual Report (1904), p. 145. 



ll^Mass. State Bd. Agric. 20th Annual Report (1872), Pt. I, p. 197. 



