38 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 380 



up into a satisfactory seedbed and seeded. On many areas used for pastures 

 of this kind, it is difficult to use the ordinary plow because of rocks and stones. 

 A tillage implement known as a "bog" harrow is sometimes used under these 

 circumstances with quite satisfactory results. Any tool which will break up and 

 pulverize the top five or six inches of soil can be employed; although for the best 

 decomposition and utilization of the old sod it should be completely turned under. 

 The use of annual top-dressings of mineral fertilizers on pastures of this type 

 is recommended in order to maintain high levels of productivity. Moderate 

 applications of fertilizers at seeding time, followed by annual applications, usually 

 result in a more efficient use of these materials than if large applications are made 

 at seeding time only. As is the case with permanent pastures more detailed in- 

 formation is contained in current publications. ^^^ 



The Grazing System 



"Manure right, sow right and manage the grazing animal wrong and >ou are 

 nowhere," writes Stapledon'^* in emphasizing the importance of grazing manage- 

 ment. It is only within the last few years, with the extensive growing of Ladino 

 clover pastures, that the importance of grazing management has begun to be 

 understood and appreciated in Massachusetts. 



With old run-down permanent pastures the yield depends more upon the 

 weather and on fertilizer practices than on the grazing system employed. It 

 has always been difficult to demonstrate any marked improvement or benefit 

 from a rotational over a continuous system of grazing on permanent pastures. 

 Grazing management becomes important only as the potential productive capa- 

 city of a pasture increases. The productive capacity of most of our permanent 

 pastures is too low for them to show much benefit from rotational grazing. In 

 other words, the greater the productive capacity of a pasture, the greater the 

 need for controlled grazing. 



Historical 



The need for exercising some control in the management of grasslands has 

 long been recognized in Massachusetts. Almost two hundred years ago Jared 

 Eliot wrote: "It will be best to take out the Sheep at the latter end of August 

 that so what English Grass there is, may make coat for the ground before Win- 

 ter . . . "1^9 The principles of rotational grazing were also early understood 

 and the adoption of rotational systems of grazing advocated. Jn. Turner in 1761 

 wrote concerning early colonial grazing practices: 



Another Error, I mention, is, that in Pasture Ground we leave open 

 too large a Piece to feed upon, in Proportion to the Number of creatures 

 to feed; as it is frequently the case, for one Cow to range on five or six 

 Acres of good Land at once, whereas by Division Fences in two Acre Lots, 

 the same Tract would maintain three Cows; . . . There is another ad- 

 vantage I have experienced in Division Fences, that in a wet Year I have 

 saved several Lots for Mowing which my Creatures did not want the 

 Feed of; and, had my Pastures lain in common, they would have been 

 trampled down and useless. ^^^ 



Other references^*! to the use of rotational or "on and off" systems of grazing 

 appear from time to time, but at no time until recently was the system adopted 



l^Mass. Stat? College Extension Leaflets 175 (1937); 144 (1939). 



ISSpourth International Grassland Congress, Great Britain, Report (Aberystwyth, 1937). p. 1. 



IS^Field Husbandry, p. 19. 



'^^ibid., p. 155. 



^'''Doolittle, Address to the Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden County Agricultural Society, 



(Northampton, 1826), p. 11; Mass. -Agricultural Societies Transactions (1853). p. 9; Mass. 



State Bd. Agric. 20th Annual Report (1872), Pt. I, p. 38. 



