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thirty years, while increased attention has been given to our 

 tillage land. Our pastures have been left to be managed by 

 any boy that was large enough to let down the bars or shut 

 the gate. It will be an object in this report to awaken in- 

 quiry upon the subject, rather than lo give any particular 

 method for improving op.r pastures. 



What is the cause of the deterioration of our pastures? 

 We think that many of our pastures liave been injured by 

 long-continued close feeding. Observation has taught us 

 that twitch grass, that pest of tillage land, will die when 

 closely fed for two or three years; so with many of the 

 grasses in our pastures, if they are not permitted to mature 

 their seed, they die, and moss takes their place. If pastures 

 are so situated that they can be permitted to mature their 

 seed once in three or four years, and are then closely fed, 

 they will produce much more than when they are fed all 

 the season. It is not so much against close feeding that we 

 so mucli object, as against continuing for a series of years, 

 without giving the pasture any time to rest. We can point 

 to pastures that have been injured, we thiuk, by not being 

 fed c.'ose enough at anytime; the briers and bushes have 

 outgrown the grasses. 



"Change of pasture makes fat calves," is a maxim which 

 contains much sound philosophy, and if its teachings were 

 more heeded, we should have better pastures and cattle. 

 In many of our pastures it is now literally a struggle for 

 life or death between the cow and the grass, from spring 

 to autumn, and often neither has vitality enough to exult 

 in a victory. 



But how shall we manage our pasture land ? When a 

 farm is so situated that it can all be conveniently ploughed 

 and manured, it may be best to change from pasture to til- 

 lage. But upon most of our farms there are portions that 

 Cannot be profitably tilled. When such land is covered 



