36 



taken data, all of which cannot be crowded into a brief paper. A 

 good rotation in the hands of a good farmer should average three 

 tons to the acre, — adequate amount to feed a cow and a half for 

 a pasture season of five months. By it more cows can be kept 

 than by the pasture system under chemical fertilization. In accord- 

 ance with previous suggestions I pasture one-eighth the tillage 

 lands and use a part of the tillage crops to supplement the untilla- 

 ble pasture areas, feeding as dry food at barn. 



The system has an apparent defect. It uses this area but one 

 year and follows timothy grown as a sale crop. Timothy is said 

 not to make a good grazing grass on account of its bulbous en- 

 largement at the base of the stem, liable to injury by grazing and 

 trampling, and to its disinclination to throw up a good second crop 

 or to grow after cutting. But grazing deals with the young plant 

 and not one that has matured a hard stem. With me the system 

 works very well. Others will raise the question of the vital im- 

 portance of mixed grasses in grazing and insist on soiling as a sub- 

 stitute for grazing. The first point is considered belon% while of 

 the second it is enough to state that I am dealing with grazing 

 improved areas. However, it may be said that soiling has its 

 drawbacks of a serious nature, and has not as yet met the approval 

 of but a mere fraction of farmers after many years of debate and 

 use. At best it is but a debatable system and one that I have not 

 deemed best to incorporate to any material degree in my farm 

 policy. 



Grasses for Pastures. 



It is an old and insistent contention of authorities that a mixed 

 grass sward yields more and better food than a single grass can. 

 The varieties root differently, mature their grasses at different 

 times, are some of them best in dry seasons, others in wet seasons, 

 differ in composition, digestibility and palatableness and form a 

 sort of rotation when mixed. The reasoning is logical and cogent 

 on the face of it, yet may have an exaggerated importance. It 

 costs more to seed mixed grasses, by a heavy margin, and while a 

 mixed grass sward carries more plants to the acre, it must be 

 remembered that great yielders if mixed with lesser sorts may 

 have their number of plants per acre reduced, and possibly thereby 

 to this extent the yield reduced. 



But an abstract reasoning is an unsafe guide of action. I made 

 in Utah a trial of nine varieties of grass and clover, and all of 

 these mixed. These were sown on measured acres, fenced and 

 grazed separately at the same time by weighed steers of equal age 

 and similar weights. Two steers were fed on a half acre each lot 



