TREATMENT OF TflE MEADOW 287 



practice in this country, except with alfalfa, is to cut but one 

 or two crops of hay and then break up the sod for some annual 

 crop such as corn, potatoes, or small grain. Often it is 

 pastured for from one to three years and then plowed and 

 planted to some one of these crops. Little attention is given 

 to the maintenance of permanent meadows except on land 

 that is very wet or is otherwise undesirable for cultivation, 

 though in England and some of the other European countries 

 lands are kept continually in grass for many years. 



Some attention may well be given to the meadow during 

 the first season in the matter of keeping down weeds and pre- 

 venting them from seeding. Fields that are seeded to grass 

 with a nurse crop in the spring often grow up to ragweed and 

 other pests after the nurse crop is removed. These weeds 

 should be prevented from seeding by going over the field 

 with a mower about the time they begin to bloom, cutting 

 the stubble rather high so as not to expose the roots of the 

 young grass plants to the full glare of the sun's rays. Pas- 

 turing new seeding is not often advisable, though it is a very 

 common practice. If a rank, heavy growth is made in the 

 fall, it can be pastured to some extent without injury, but 

 the quantity of forage produced is usually small, and the 

 hay crop of the succeeding year is often reduced materially 

 by fall pasturing. Enough top growth should be left to give 

 ample protection to the roots during the winter. The fall 

 growth of leaves also furnishes a supply of food material to 

 the roots, which is stored over winter and used by the early 

 growth of the plant the following spring. If the meadow is 

 closely pastured in the fall, this supply of plant food is less- 

 ened, with a corresponding reduction in growth the next 

 year. 



If the stand of grass is thin in the spring following seeding, 

 it can sometimes be thickened and the yield of hay increased 



