156 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



in good husbandry. It is considered of great advan- 

 tage to give a light dressing of compost or of rotted 

 dung to young grass ; and to avoid feeding it with 

 heavy animals the first year, before the turf has 

 thickened and become firm. 



If the grounds laid down in grass are intended for 

 permanent meadow, reference should be had to the 

 grasses which are fit for the scythe at nearly the 

 same time. For information on this point, we refer 

 to p. 30, vol. iv., and to pages 11, 33, 47, and 63, vol. 

 iii., of the Cultivator. 



Should pasture and meadow be made to alternate, 

 or should fields be kept exclusively for each 1 The 

 American practice is not to alternate ; and yet there 

 seems to be substantial reasons for a contrary 

 course. The object in both cases is to obtain the 

 greatest quantity and the best quality of food for 

 farm-stock ; and this object is promoted in both 

 cases by scarifying, draining, and top-dressing. La- 

 bour is as profitably laid out in improving our pas- 

 ture as our meadow grounds. But feeding and mow- 

 ing have different effects upon the soil. In one case 

 the crop is annually carried off, and in the other con- 

 sumed upon the ground. Meadows, therefore, di- 

 minish in fertility, while pasturing increases the 

 productive powers of the soil. Is it not proper, for 

 this reason alone, to alternate, in order to keep up 

 fertility ! But there is another argument: pastures 

 soon abound with biennial and perennial plants, as 

 thistles, mulleins, &c., which, as cattle do not con- 

 sume them, mature and shed their seed, and multiply 

 rapidly ; whereas, if they are occasionally converted 

 to meadows, these plants would be cut down before 

 the seed matured, and at least the biennials would 

 be soon extirpated. These weeds are as prejudicial 

 in pastures, in diminishing the quantity of herbage 

 as they are in meadows, and the same good manage- 

 ment requires their extirpation in both. 



Something depends vn the size of enclosures. Small 



