PASTURES AND PASTURING. 147 



is, and wonderfully adapt themselves to its productiveness. 

 Our pastures are necessarily made up of some good land ; 

 but the major part is too rough, too poor, too wet or too dry, 

 to admit of profitable cultivation ; hence our object is to make 

 the most of an almost valueless article by allowing stock to 

 glean what it may produce. No wonder that, with this single 

 object in view, such pastures should produce less from year 

 to year, — should run down. 



While the continual use of pastures for the dairy must 

 exhaust them of their most valuable mineral elements, unless 

 some means to prevent this are derived from outside sources, 

 yet the location of the lying-places of the cattle, where they 

 stay when not feeding, has much effect. I knew a large dairy 

 farm, one of the most productive in the county of Litchfield 

 fifty years ago, that had but two pastures, one for the day 

 and the other for the night. The day range was the largest 

 and the lying-place of the cows, ne^r one corner, hardly ex- 

 ceeded two acres. The lay of the land and the channel of a 

 brook cut this off from benefiting the rest of the field. The 

 result was it grew poorer and poorer ; hardbacks {potentilla 

 fniticosa) got in, and have pretty much usurped the whole 

 field. In the night pasture, somewhat less in extent, the 

 lying-place was on a ridge where everything was saved to 

 the field, and this pasture was more productive at the end 

 than at the beginning. It got a little from the otheU' larger 

 field ; but its smaller size caused it to be more closely grazed, 

 so as to keep out foul stuff. It was also drier, so that the 

 feed was naturally sweeter. But, after all, the lying-places 

 of the cows had much to do with the loss of productiveness 

 in one field and gain in the other. One good farmer laid so 

 much stress on these lying-places, that he took pains to pro- 

 vide them in the parts of the pasture he desired to improve. 

 He cut the coarse grass from the swales and made small 

 stacks upon the dry knolls. A little later this would be 

 spread about with a fork, and the cattle would lie there and 

 their droppings be where they would do the most good. 



Where cattle are salted they will often come. I have seen 

 cows salted in the narrow lane leading to the milking-yard 

 or barn. The time is well spent in carrying the salt. to some 

 part of the field where their droppings are needed. Many a 



