CHAPTER XII 

 PASTURES, MEADOWS, AND FORAGE 



/. P. ROBERTS 



1. Grass 



304. The fundamental crop is grass. It 

 covers the land as with a blanket, prepares the 

 soil for other crops, and affords sustenance for 

 farm animals. 



305. Grass is one of the important crops in 

 rotations ; and a rotation is essential to general 

 husbandry if productiveness of the land is main- 

 tained. Rotations improve the farm (a) because 

 the land receives different treatments in different 

 years, so that faults of one year may be cor- 

 rected the following year, (6) no one element of 

 plant-food is likely to be exhausted, (c) one 

 crop leaves the land in best condition for 

 another, (d) roots and stubble of grass, clover 

 and cereals improve the texture of the soil, 

 (e) they allow the use of clovers, which add 

 nitrogen, and (/) bring up food from the sub- 

 soil (170, 170a), (g) weeds and pests are kept 

 in check, (li) labor is economized. 



(179) 



