EXPERIMENTS WITH PERMANENT PASTURES 19 



consisted almost entirely of haircap moss {Polytrichum commune L.), with occa- 

 sional plants of running cinquefoil, sorrel and bent grasses. The pasture was 

 poorer than is ordinarily considered worth spending any money on for improve- 

 ment; yet in years past it was no doubt a good pasture. Being located convenient- 

 ly near the barn, it stood to repay an investment for improvement better than a 

 like field farther removed. The original experiment was laid out in duplicate 

 series, the plots of each series receiving treatments as shown in table 14. Other 

 plots were added to one of the series (east) in 1929 when the original fertilizer 

 treatments were repeated, but the additional plots are not considered in this 

 report. Plots 1-20 of the west series were plowed in 1926, but plots 21-30 of the 

 same series are still clearly defined by effects on the vegetation of fertilizer applied 

 in 1924. (Fig. 11). Plots 23-30 of both series received an application of a mix- 

 ture of Kentucky blue grass and white clover seed in June 1924. The seed was 

 not worked into the soil in any manner, merely scattered over the surface. 



Most of the growing season of 1924 was rather dry. During that first year 

 of the experiment there was little or no visible effect either of the fertilizer or the 

 seed. In 1925, a good year for pastures, the effects of both fertilizer and seed 

 became evident to the eye. According to Lanphear\ white clover was dominant 

 on those plots which received a complete mineral treatment, consisting of lime, 

 superphosphate, and muriate of potash, and the seed mixture in addition. Plots 

 which received the complete mineral treatment but no seed, contained no white 

 clover. In these plots redtop predominated. Kentucky blue grass was not present 

 in appreciable proportion. Certain combinations of minerals, together with the 

 seeding, caused appreciable growth of white clover, but no other combination 

 was as effective as the complete treatment. (Fig. 10). 



In the spring of 1926 some of the plots of the east series of this experiment 

 were fenced off from the cattle for a few weeks. Figure 11 gives a good idea of 

 the effect of fertilizer and seed on the character of the growth. As a result of 

 this phase of his experiment, Lanphear suggested the possibility of seeding small 

 amounts of white clover on pastures as a practicable method of determining 

 whether the chemical factors were favorable for this crop. 



In 1929 the east series of plots in experiment C was again fertilized as in 

 1924, and the east half of each plot received in addition Chilean nitrate of soda 

 at the rate of 193.6 pounds (30 lbs. N) per acre. The area was fenced off from 

 the grazing cattle, and in July the grass from each plot was harvested, dried, 

 weighed, and separated into grasses, clovers, and weeds. The fence was opened 

 soon after the harvest of the crop and the cattle allowed to graze the plots for the 

 rest of the season. This procedure was repeated in 1930, except that two clip- 

 pings of grass were made instead of one. Data from this experiment for the two 

 years, including yield of dry matter, yield of protein, botanical composition and 

 ratios of dry matter and protein are given in tables 15-19. First, any treatment, 

 small or large, single or combined, was beneficial. Generally, the benefit increased 

 with the amount of fertilizer added. A combination of two materials generally 

 produced more than a single fertilizer, and a combination of three or more 

 elements more than two, except that the combination of any element with 

 nitrogen yielded more than any three without nitrogen. Nitrogen alone was 

 not as effective as other elements alone, but nitrogen in combination with other 

 elements was more effective than any other element. These relationships are 

 brought out by the figures in table 17 in which results have been calculated in 



Lanphear, M. O. An ecological study of pasture cover. Unpublished thesis. Mass. State Col- 

 lege Library. 



