PASTURES FOR GRAZING FARM ANIMALS 24! 



is satisfactory. Grass seed is usually applied to 

 the ground in the fall, with wheat, or, if clover is to 

 be added, the timothy, red top, etc., is seeded in 

 the fall and clover applied in the spring. The first 

 year nothing is obtained from the field except a 

 crop of wheat. In the fall the land has to be mowed, 

 to keep down the weeds. If the stand is good, the 

 new pasture may be grazed very lightly the first 

 fall, but stock should be kept off during the 

 winter. The next season the grass ought to be 

 fairly well established and capable of supporting 

 a pretty fair number of farm animals. During this 

 second season care must be taken to take off the 

 stock at the first appearance of overpasturing. 

 Then, too, if weeds of any kind appear, they must 

 be mowed and disposed of before the seed ap- 

 pears. By the end of the third or fourth year a 

 start toward a permanent pasture is well under 

 way. 



Another practice is to sow the grass seed alone 

 without a nurse crop. The crop of fall grain is 

 practically last, but, in many cases, particularly 

 where there is apt to be a shortage of moisture, it 

 is better to seed alone. The same precautions 

 noted concerning weeds and overpasturing must 

 be observed in this case. If the ground to be de- 

 voted to pasture has a very compact and stubborn 

 subsoil, it ought to be subsoil plowed before it is 

 seeded to grass. The cost of this extra labor will 

 be more than made up by the increased thrift of 

 the pasture crop. 



Prof. W. J. Spillman states that there are three 

 great pasture grasses in the United States brome 

 grass for the Northwest, blue grass for all the cen- 

 tral area and Bermuda grass for the South. To this 

 must, of course, be added alfalfa, which, although 



