32O FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



sometimes graze close where growth is least luxuriant, be- 

 cause the pasture there is less coarse than in other parts 

 and also probably sweeter, while they will not graze at all. 

 or but little, on the ranker portions of the grass. Sheep es- 

 pecially, are much prone to graze thus. Notwithstanding, 

 while the less productive portions are being grazed, grass is 

 accumulating in the ungrazed portions of the fields, and this 

 will be consumed readily when that season comes, which it 

 usually does every year, when the close grazed portions of 

 the field have practically ceased to produce grazing. 



In the autumn, the aim should be to avoid grazing so 

 close that fields will be left without any winter protection. 

 This, of course, is more important in .climates where the 

 frost is intense, where the fields are much swept with bleak 

 winds when bare, and where the snowfall is light. When 

 the grass covering has been entirely removed in the fall, 

 the blades are slow in starting in the spring, more espe- 

 cially where frosts are intense, and the early grazing is less 

 suitable to the needs of plants than it would otherwise be. 

 (See p. 319.) There are instances, however, in which want 

 of grazing would result in the smothering of the plants 

 to their complete destruction, especially where the snowfall 

 is heavy, and there are other instances where the unre- 

 moved covering would be so much, that it would check the 

 growth of the grass in spring even though it should not 

 be killed by the covering. 



Whether different classes of animals should be grazed 

 together on the same pasture is a disputed question. Many 

 are opposed to it. Notwithstanding, it would seem to be 

 a question largely of conditions. When the pastures are not 

 abundant sheep, for instance, should not graze with cattle. 

 Because of their habit of close cropping, they will get the 

 lion's share of the pasture, and through their habit of tread- 

 ing much while grazing, would render the grass more dis- 

 tasteful to the cattle. But when the pasture is abundant 

 through all the season, grazing different classes of animals 

 together is probably an advantage, as one class from 



