44 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 380 



quirements against the unfavorable effects of the weather. In favorable seasons 

 the surplus crop can be made into hay or grass silage. In unfavorable seasons 

 any surpluses which existed at earlier periods can be used to fill later feed require- 

 ments. By using strains and species of varying seasonal maturities in different 

 fields, he can spread his haying or grass silage operations over a longer period of 

 time and in doing so he can make more effective use of his rowen or aftermath 

 grazing. It must be conceded that the semi-permanent pasture magnifies the 

 grazing management problem, but the benefits to be derived from a well-co- 

 ordinated, properly controlled system of grazing far outweigh the few disadvan- 

 tages which exist. 



The last important potentiality of the seeded or rotation pasture is the logical 

 role it should play in a well-conceived system of "grassland agriculture." In the 

 writer's opinion, a grassland system of agriculture for Massachusetts does not 

 imply decreasing the acreage of tilled crops and increasing the acreage in grass, 

 nor does it mean keeping to the present long-continued practice of growing tilled 

 crops continuously on certain restricted parts of the farm and grass continuously 

 on other parts. A logical system of grassland farming will alternate insofar as 

 practical the tilled crop with the sod crop, a system which will operate to the 

 mutual advantage of both crops. More than a hundred years ago S. F. Dickinson 

 said of farming in Massachusetts, "Alternate ploughing and seeding is a valuable 

 substitute for manure; and an economical method of keeping land in heart. 'i^^ 

 Stapledon has more recently written, "The ley itself is the pivotal crop in any 

 good system of alternate husbandry, both for the feed it produces and for the sod 

 it develops. Both feed and sod properly disposed of carry fertility around the 

 whole farm. "1*6 



The difficulties which have frequently been enountered in Massachusetts in 

 the use of sod crops in rotations probably resulted from inadequate fertilizing 

 of the land while it was in sod. When the hay or pasture crop is permitted to 

 exhaust most of the available soil fertility, an operation at which grass is very 

 efficient, the succeeding crop, particulary if it is one with high fertility require- 

 ments, will usually make poor and unsatisfactory growth. 



The grass crop is one of infinite usefulness and one which can be made to serve 

 a wide variety of purposes; but its success, together with the success of crops 

 grown in rotation with it, centers around the key words soil fertility. 



^^^Address to the Hampshire. Franklin and Hampden County Agricultural Society (Amherst, 



1831), p. 10. 

 l**Plough-Up Policy and Ley Farming, p. 150. 



