EXPERIMENTS WITH PERMANENT PASTURES 5 



Experiments in Pasture Improvement by Top-dressing 



From time to time in years past many Massachusetts farmers have made 

 tests of various methods and materials for the improvement of pastures. Some 

 of the results of these tests as well as valuable observations vi'ere recorded in the 

 Reports of the State Board of Agriculture, and they were a distinct contribution 

 to our knowledge of pasture management. However, the first experiment in the 

 use of modern chemical fertilizers undertaken by the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Experiment Station was the one laid out by Wm. P. Brooks in 1909, and contin- 

 ued until 1916. This experiment is described later. 



During the period immediately following the ^^'orld War, interest in pasture 

 experiments was revived and a numlier of tests were made of chemical fertilizers 

 applied as top-dressing to run-out pastures in the counties of western Massachu- 

 setts. These tests were conducted by the County Extension Service Agents of 

 the.se counties, working in cooperation with the Extension Specialist of the 

 Agronomy Department of the IVIassachusetts Agricultural College. In practically 

 all the tests only lime and superphosphate were applied, singly or in combination. 

 In some cases immediate and marked response was obtained from these materials; 

 in others, benefits were slight or negligible. An outstanding example of response 

 to soluble phosphoric acid was obtained in 1921-22 by J. B. Abbott, then Exten- 

 sion Agronomist, from an application of 16 per cent superphosphate at the rate 

 of 2000 pounds to the acre on the Potter Farm at Great Barrington. 



In the spring of 1921 the Massachusetts Experiment Station again took up 

 the problem of pasture improvement by means of fertilizers. In the period 1921- 

 1930 several experiments in the top-dressing of upland pastures were started, 

 three of which are the main subject of this bulletin. 



REVIEW OF LITERATURE 



The revival of interest in pasture problems which has occurred in recent 

 years is reflected in the increase of publications bearing on the subject. For 

 example, for the three-year period of 1916-18, a total of 129 references to papers 

 on pastures and meadows is listed in the Agricultural Index, whereas for the 

 period 1928-30, 260 titles are listed. 



It is not intended in this bulletin to give a complete review of the literature 

 bearing on pastures, or even a complete review of that which bears on the ques- 

 tion of top-dressing permanent pastures, the phase of the subject with which 

 this report is especially concerned. Brown and Slate (4) have given an excellent 

 and rather complete review of pasture literature in several of its phases, up to 

 1929. For a detailed review of the literature and bibliographies, the reader is 

 referred to the l)ulletin of Brown and Slate, as well as to Vol. 21, No. 6 of the 

 Journal of the American Society of Agronomy (1929), which contains the papers 

 presented at a symposium on Pasture Management Research. The following 

 review is intended to cover the principal ])ul)lications bearing on the subject 

 matter of this report and published since 1929. 



Orr (10) has published a comprehensive treatise on the relation of minerals 

 in pasture soils to the mineral content of the herbage and of this in turn to the 

 health of the grazing animals. Many of the mineral-deficiency diseases of grazing 

 animals are traceable to the mineral content of the soil, according to this author. 

 He points out that scientific information already at hand warrants the belief 

 that the production of the grazing lands of the world can be doubled and, at the 

 same time, the health and quality of the grazing animals improved. "The 



