OHAPTEK XVI. 



PERMANENT PASTURES. 



Permanent pastures, as the name would indicate, are 

 those which are grown continuously on the same land 

 for a successive number of years of considerable dura- 

 tion, or for all time. Sometimes they are practically 

 composed of but a single grass; in other instances and 

 more frequently, they are composed of a variety of grass- 

 es which have much power to remain in the land. The 

 dominant idea, underlying their growth, is to crowd 

 into the pasture, as many of the enduring grasses that 

 furnish valuable grazing, as can be grown successfully 

 together for a term of years, and which at the same time, 

 make the bulk of their growth at different periods of the 

 growing season. But since some of these are slow in 

 attaining a maximum of growth, taking as much as three 

 or four years, in some instances, to accomplish this, seed 

 of short-lived varieties is frequently sown also to aid in 

 providing a full supply of grazing, while the slow ma- 

 turing varieties are attaining a maximum of develop- 

 ment. When the pasture is once secured, it is, or ought 

 to be, the aim to maintain it in undiminishing product- 

 iveness by keeping it free from weeds and by stimu- 

 lating growth with fertilizers. 



Permanent pastures composed of mixed grasses have 

 not been extensively grown on this continent. It is, 



