PASTURE LANDS. 145 



IMPROVEMENT OF PASTURE LANDS. 



NOEFOLK. 



Report of the Committee. 



The Committeo on Improving Pasture Lands, in submitting 

 their report, with the accompanying exact and intelligent letter 

 of Mr, Gray, are happy to say, that they have had an opportu- 

 nity at last to bring the subject of improving pastures to the 

 notice of the members of the society. " Whether," to use the 

 language of Mr. Gray, " the renovating of this pasture will 

 prove a profitable operation, remains to be proved." Yet he 

 can safely say, it will pasture four cows now, where it would 

 two before. This fact is worth something, and should Mr. 

 Gray's example be followed generally, a similar result would 

 certainly be productive of much good to the community. To 

 what extent these improvements can be made on large farms 

 where capital is not plenty, and unimproved acres are far too 

 numerous, the committee will not decide, neither has there 

 been a sufficient experience to settle, whether the wood lot, or 

 the pasture, is better for the owner in the long run ; but, 

 certainly, on small farms, and where there is pecuniary ability, 

 many an unsightly spot, overgrown with brushwood and briars, 

 would be well changed into food for cattle. Two results strike 

 the committee as following the improvements under considera- 

 tion. One is the fact that a larger number of cattle can be fed 

 on the same land ; and the other, that the quality of the food 

 will be improved. In our ordinary pastures five or six months 

 of feeding is all that can be profitably obtained, and that, too, 

 with additional feeding from the barn, especially if the milk is 

 sold in the market. Suppose that our pastures should be made 

 as rich as our mowing lands, should we not be able to extend 

 the pasturage season, save the fall feed in our mowing fields, 

 the feeding of the latter being considered by many good farmers 

 a poor plan ; and would not the milk be richer and sweeter 

 than it often is, as the cows would have only the good grasses 

 to eat ? The committee trust that Mr. Gray's example will 

 call the attention of farmers to their pastures, and that this 



19 



