18 EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



TOP-DRESSING PASTURES. 



DY WM. P. BROOKS, DIRECTOR. 



The results obtained in top-dressing the permanent mowings, 

 which comprise a large proportion of the college campus, have 

 demonstrated most conclnsively that the character and growth 

 of the forage produced may be profoundly modified by the 

 nature of the fertilizer applied. It was early noticed that the 

 continued, moderate use of basic slag meal and a potash salt 

 had a marked effect upon the proportion of clovers, and there- 

 fore upon the nutritive value of the hay produced. This hay 

 is made up largely of Kentucky blue grass and white clover, 

 and is found to be much superior as forage for milch cows to 

 the best grades of hay (composed of timothy, red top, alsike 

 and red clovers) produced in our rotation mowings, these 

 mowings being usually cropped two 3'ears in corn and then 

 from two to four years in hay. 



These observations led to the belief that similar systems of 

 top-dressing would prove highly beneficial to many of our 

 ])astures. These, as is generally recognized, are often of ver}'' 

 inferior character. On the average, several acres are required 

 to yield pasturage for a single cow, and this even in the case 

 of pastures free from brush or other obstructions. In the 

 (V)nnecticut valley, especially, in the month of May, when the 

 young grasses and clovers should be making a vigorous growth, 

 producing rich green turf, it is common to find pastures almost 

 as white as the driven snow with a thick crop of bluets (Housto- 

 n'la ccpruJea), while the grasses are making little growth and 

 white clover is scarcely to be found. In many cases close ex- 

 amination shows areas where mosses are replacing the grasses. 

 Such conditions indicate a sour soil, and such pastures will ])ro- 

 duce relatively little feed. 



Tu th(^ sju'ino' of 11)00 :m cxix riineut in top-dressing was 



