446 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



For the New England Farmer. 



HOW TO DOCTOR SIOK PASTURES. 



BY HENRY F. FRENCH. 



Before prescribing for a patient, we must under- 

 stand his disease. There are several reasons why 

 old pastures do not produce feed. A prominent 

 reason is, that the valuable grasses, such as timo- 

 thy, red-top and clover, from various causes, soon 

 run out, and require to be renewed. Timothy, 

 which we, at the North, call herds-grass, and 

 which is perhaps, our most valuable grass, although 

 strictly a perennial, is usually shortlived. It has 

 a bulbous root, which is often pulled up by cattle 

 in feeding, is peculiarly liable to be throivn out 

 by frost, and to be destroyed by drought. The 

 red clover is a biennial, and ought to die the second 

 year, though if not permitted to seed it lives long- 

 er. Red-top, which is more hardy than either, is 

 a perennial, but like all other grasses, flourishes 

 better when occasionally renewed from seed. In 

 a closely fed pasture little of any kind of grass 

 can mature its seed, so that when the roots are 

 once destroyed by any of the "ills that grass 

 heir to," Nature has no means left to supply the 

 vacuum which philosophers say she so abhors, and 

 the ground is ready, like other idle bodies, for any 

 mischievous employment, such as raising thorns 

 and thistles. 



Then again there is a principle of rota/ion man- 

 ifest as well in all nature's works, as in political 

 operations. If a pine forest is cut off, a hard wood 

 growth usually succeeds ; if a hard wood lot is 

 cleared, pine usually springs up in its place. This 

 is chiefly owing to the fact, that the elements of 

 fertility which promote the growth of the pine are 

 in some measure different from those which pro- 

 mote the growth of the oak or maple, and while 

 the one set have been for ages exhausted to some 

 extent, the other have been at the same time ac- 

 cumulating. So with the grasses. They grow 

 for a time luxuriantly, exhausting the peculiar ele- 

 ments which constitute their substance, and other 

 plants, creeping vines, mosses and the like, take 

 their place, and no valuable food is produced 



It may be suggested, that in pastures where 

 cattle run through the season night and day, this 

 exhausting process would not take place, because 

 all that is taken from the land is returned to it 

 This would be a f&ir answer, were it true that 

 the manure is returned to the same place where 

 the grass grows, and evenly spread, and incorpo- 

 rated with the soil. 



In that way the pasture would be always pro- 

 ductive ; but, in truth, the manure is left chiefly in 

 particular localities — about watering places, under 

 shade trees, or sheltered places ; and if left ivhcre 

 it is needed, it is in a condition to be mostly wast- 

 ed by evaporation. No farmer would expect much 

 advantage from a top dressing, applied as the cat- 

 tle apply it to pastures. 



Again, coio-pastures , from which the cows are 

 taken at night, and to which they are returned in 

 the morning, without being fed, are systematically 

 robbed of so much of the elements of fertility as con- 

 stitute the manure left in the yard, and the milk. 

 Milk contains,among other elements, a large quan- 

 tity of phosphoric acid and lime — elements which 

 enter largely into the structure of all the valuable 

 grasses, and constitute a large proportion of the 

 bones of all animals. Old cow-pastures become in 



time so exhausted of these elements that cows fed 

 upon such pastures suffer for materials from ivhkh 

 to make milk, and supply the means of growth for 

 their bones and those of their calves, whether born 

 or unborn. As they cannot get their supply in 

 homoeopathic doses in the grass, they frequently 

 are seen chewing old bones. The farmer calls this 

 the bone disease, and so it i3 ; and the remedy is 

 very simple. It is to give the animal a small 

 quantity of bone dust, daily, which she will eat 

 greedily. It is kept at Iluggles, Nourse, Ma- 

 son & Co.'s,in Boston, prepared for the purpose. 



The growth of bushes, of various kinds, which 

 shade the land, and exhaust its moisture, and 

 nourishment, by means of their roots, is another 

 manifest obstacle to the growth of sweet and nour- 

 ishing feed. 



Having thus ascertained the nature of the dis- 

 ease, with which our old pasture is afflicted, the 

 theory of the remedy will be very apparent, al- 

 though the practicability of it must depend some- 

 what on the constitution of the patient. 



Fortunately, however, for this kind of practice, 

 old age even is not incurable, although being a 

 chronic disease, it requires thorough treatment. 

 Medea is said to have renewed the youth of old 

 Aeson, by drawing all the blood from his veins, 

 and filling them with the juice of certain herbs. 

 The blood has already been drawn out of our pa- 

 tient, and we have only to supply the juices of the 

 proper herbs ! 



If your old pasture can be plowed, plow it in 

 the fall, and seed it down any time before the 

 ground freezes, with herds-grass and red-top. 

 Clover should not be sowed in autumn, as it will 

 not endure the winter, but may be sowed in 

 spring, on the late snow. I use twelve quarts of 

 herds-grass, one bushel of red-top, and six pounds 

 of clover to the acre. A sprinkling of winter rye 

 would add much to the next year's feed. Manure 

 of some kind should be harrowed in before sowing, 

 and the kind must depend upon locality and con- 

 venience. 



Every forty gallons of milk contains one pound 

 of bone earth, which is chiefly phosphate of lime. 

 A cow which gives two gallons per day for six 

 months, would carry away from the pasture in 

 that form alone, nine pounds of bone earth, as 

 much as is contained usually in twelve pounds of 

 bone dust. Milk contains besides phosphoric acid 

 and lime, appreciable quantities of potash, soda, 

 magnesia, oxide of iron, sulphuric acid and chlo- 

 rine. 



All these elements are usually found in stahle 

 and barn manure, but they are there combined 

 with large quantities of vegetable matter, which 

 the sick cow-pasture does not need, so much as 

 the tillage land, besides a vast weight of water, 

 which the "sweet heavens" will send down before 

 another summer, and save us the hauling. Lfct 

 us understand this matter, and see whether it is 

 worth while to haul out barn manure for this pur- 

 pose. One hundred pounds of cow-dung contains 

 about eighty-three pounds of water, worth no more 

 than so much rain water, and fourteen pounds of 

 hay, worth no more than well chopped hay, which 

 has not been devoured. And of the remaining 

 three pounds, a large part is of very little value. 

 Something less than three ounces of phosphate of 

 lime, (or Done earth) and not quite one and a half 

 ounces of sulphate of lime, (or plaster of'paris,) 



