KENTUCKY BLUE GRASS. 99 



excellent summer and autumn grazing, especially for 

 horses and cattle. They usually lay on flesh quickly 

 while being thus grazed. In climates sufficiently mild, 

 these pastures also furnish good winter grazing for these 

 classes of animals. For sheep and swine they are not 

 so palatable, because of the presence of weedy seed 

 stems, nevertheless sheep are likely to do well on such 

 pastures more especially in the winter. They and also 

 horses will even paw off the light snows and maintain 

 themselves in good form from such grazing where the 

 climatic conditions are not too severe. 



When blue grass pastures are grazed off closely in 

 the spring and early summer, and the stock is then re- 

 moved during the greater part of the season, the grass 

 will usually make a good growth. Where the winters 

 are mild, such grazing will be found particularly adapt- 

 ed to the grazing of sheep. But when covered with 

 white frost, animals turned upon them early in the day 

 should first have access to some kind of fodder, lest dis- 

 orders in the digestion should be produced. Where the 

 winters are stern, these pastures should furnish excel- 

 lent grazing in the early spring. They begin to grow 

 considerably earlier than when they have not been thus 

 protected, and the growth is more vigorous. The fresh 

 blades growing up in the grass add to its palatability, 

 and the blades and stems that have cured on the ground 

 counteract the tendency in the new growth at such a 

 season to produce in animals a too lax condition in the 

 digestion. Moreover these pastures furnish abundant 

 grazing at that early season when it cannot so well be 

 obtained from any other source. Blue grass whon re- 



