Paddocks and Pastures. 23 



cattle and sheep, both being equally as good judges of 

 tasty herbage as .the horses, combine their forces in an 

 onslaught on the tasty grass first. From the stud groom's 

 point of view the result is disastrous. The best herbage is 

 soon eaten down, leaving the paddocks a patchwork of 

 alternate spaces of close cropped and long rank grass. The 

 horses and sheep stick doggedly to the sweet patches, the 

 sheep nibbling as closely as rabbits; the cattle reluctantly 

 .turn their attention to the rank patches, not from choice, 

 but because, owing to the shortness of the sweet grass they 

 have great difficulty in getting their furred tongues 

 round it, and tearing it off, and are therefore compelled by 

 hunger to turn their attention to the longer but less 

 tempting herbage. A paddock in this sorry plight is not 

 conducive to a generous milk supply for the foals. Hence 

 the stud groom's tears. It may be urged that the disease 

 is simply overstocking, and the obvious remedy a reduction 

 in the number of cattle and sheep. But a moment's 

 reflection will show that such a remedy would not touch the 

 root cause of the trouble, viz., the epicurean judgment of 

 horses, cattle and sheep. Even if the number of cattle and 

 sheep were reduced by one half, the remaining half would 

 still pay solicitous attention to the choicest herbage, and 

 the net result would be still larger expanses of the long and 

 less palatable grass. 



MOWING MACHINE OR CATTLE ? 



I have already noted that the farming of grass land is 

 the most difficult of all branches of farming ; and the most 

 tiresome problem connected with this branch, is the pre- 

 vention and cure of this evil of coarse, unpalatable herbage. 

 This condition of the herbage is caused either by the grasses 

 running to seed, and becoming hard and devoid of juice, 



