12 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



destroyed, and its place was taken by plants even more infe- 

 rior in character. This has resulted in the carrying capacity 

 of the California ranges being very greatly lowered. 



The constant close cropping of the vegetation on such a 

 pasture means the robbing of the soil of its fertility, the loss of 

 vegetable matter or humus being especially great. This loss of 

 fertility will of course not be nearly as rapid as where hay is 

 cut from a meadow and nothing replaced. IsTevertheless, it is 

 going on all the time, and is one of the important factors in 

 pasture deterioration. 



Again, where a pasture is badly overgrazed the evaporation 

 of moisture from the soil is much more rapid. The best 

 graziers of the country have learned by experience that if 

 their pastures are to do well there must be a good grass cover- 

 ing or vegetable mulch in order to tide them through the 

 periods of dry weather. There seem to be two reasons for 

 this: first, where the grass is kept very closely cropped the 

 sun's rays get a more direct action on the bare ground and 

 thus dry it out much more quickly; second, the humus, which 

 is so necessary in the soil in order to allow plant growth, helps 

 greatly to retain the moisture. Where this humus has been 

 used up, the ground will naturally dry out much more 

 quickly. 



There are numerous pastures throughout the l^ew England 

 States that are situated on areas of thin, poor soil and that 

 are on steep hillsides, where the danger of erosion is very 

 great, which should never have been cleared of timber. Such 

 areas, if not already allowed to revert to forests, should be 

 replanted to timber at the earliest opportunity. Again, there 

 are numerous pastures that are very rough and full of large 

 boulders, in which weeds and brush have gotten nearly com- 

 plete possession. In many instances it would cost altogether 

 too much to attempt to clear such land. The best method of 

 making it pay dividends is to put it into forests. It has been 

 definitely proved that, with the present prices of lumber, the 

 setting out of such areas to good marketable timber will be 

 the best sort of an investment. Information as to the best 

 methods of planting forests can be obtained from State For- 

 ester of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, or 



