146 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



PASTURES AND PASTURING. 



BY T. S. GOLD, 8ECRETABT OF THE CONNECTICUT STATE BOAKD OF AGKICULTUKB. 



In discussing this perplexing, knotty and well-worn topic, 

 I must be allowed to draw largely from my personal obser- 

 vations, extending over a period of more than fifty years, and 

 to ramble in discourse as we ramble in fact over the fields. 

 We shall find that there are various causes for deterioration 

 in our pastures, demanding difierent remedies in diflferent 

 cases ; and successful examples of improvement will suggest 

 plans, either simple or compound, upon which we may work 

 to increase their productiveness. 



If the discourse is dry, so are our pastures ; if it is irregu- 

 lar, without form or order, so are our pastures ; if it is 

 choked and marred with weedy and out-of-place thoughts, so 

 are our pastures infested with useless vegetation. Is the sub- 

 ject well worn and even barren of results ? So are our pas- 

 tures. Criticise it as you may, you will find a counterpart 

 of its defects in the fields ; and we venture to hope that the 

 green oases of many a luxuriant field may also find a coun- 

 terpart in some illustration or example, so that even so trite 

 a subject may furnish us some instruction in dealing with 

 what all admit to be one of the most serious problems in New 

 England agriculture. 



There is a general cry that our pastures in New England 

 are running down ; are less productive than formerly ; and 

 while this may be true as a general rule, there are so many 

 and notable exceptions, that we need not accept it as a nec- 

 essary result, but should be encouraged to use our efibrts to 

 make the improvement a general one — an advance along 

 the whole line. 



What shall be the Size of Our Pastures? 



As far as dairy stock is concerned, the stock will undoubt- 

 edly do better to have their entire range in one or two pas- 

 tures. Turning out reasonably early in the spring, with 

 stock enough to keep the feed reasonably short and there- 

 fore fresh, will give the best returns for the dairy. Quiet- 

 ness in the cows is of as much importance as the feed. 

 Cows, especially if home-bred, soon learn what their range 



