1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



521 



MANAGEMENT OF PASTUKES. 



E are not aware 

 that any expe- 

 riments have 

 recently been 

 made in this 

 region to test 

 the practicabil- 

 ity of the sys- 

 tem we are 

 about to re- 

 commend, but 

 we, neverthe- 

 less, feel fully per- 

 suaded in our own mind, that it 

 cannot, if systematically and 

 rigidly carried out, be followed by other than the 

 best results. Every farmer is aware that a suc- 

 cessful process in the labor of enriching soils is 

 that of "turning them out to pasture," and that 

 soils which have been thus treated, and allowed to 

 recuperate during a series of years, are found, on 

 being again plowed and subjected to cultivation 

 to be endued with principles of fertility sometimes 

 equal to those which they possessed in their prim- 

 itive or virgin state. This, we conjecture, would 

 be the common result of the system when thor- 

 oughly carried out ; and we know of no instance in 

 which lands that have been depastured for a series 

 of years — no matter how carelessly they may have 

 been cropped — have been injured by it. On the 

 conti'ary, many exhausted fields from which all the 

 industry and skill of the cultivator were inade- 

 quate to secure a remunerating crop, have been 

 restored to productiveness in a few seasons, sim- 

 ply by "turning them out." 



This was once a very common opinion in some 

 of our oldest agricultural districts. No sooner did 

 a field that had been robbed of its fertility by a 

 long course of severe and injudicious cropping fail 

 to produce liberally, than it was "turned out to 

 pasture." What the precise operation of natural 

 laws upon the land is, left in this condition, we 

 are not able to say with certainty, but have no 

 doubt that it may be fairly imputed to three caus- 

 es : the annual decay of the vegetable matter 

 which grows upon the surface, which serves as a 

 top-dressing, though it may be very slight — the 

 effect of the solar rays in attracting mineral mat- 

 ters from below, upward, nearer the surface, where 

 the roots of plants may readily find them, and the 

 fertilizing influences of the atmosphere, that great 

 ocean of light, moisture and quickening gases 

 ever spread over the soil and descending upon 

 it, to feed and perfect the vegetation that covers 

 the surface of the earth. We are inclined to think 

 that the principal advantage received by land in 

 a state of exhaustion, is from the latter source. 



When land is thus partially or wholly restored 

 to a state of fertility, we too often find little in 

 subsequent details to recommend. After having 

 repossessed himself of a portion of valuable soil, 

 almost the first step of the proprietor is to re- 

 adopt the precise system of management, in crop- 

 ping, by which it was originally made poor ! In- 

 stead of carefully husbanding his re-attained 

 wealth, he goes immediately and blindly to work 

 to dissipate and destroy it. 



The plan we have to suggest is this ; Let the 

 poor fields be at once "turned out ;" let them lie 

 two, four, or six years, as the case may seem 1o 

 demand, and until the soil has re-acquired its 

 former vigorous and healthy tone, and then, with- 

 out the intervention of any grain crop, or if the 

 object is grass exclusively, without any crop what- 

 ever, let them be laid down to grass. The period 

 for plowing should be that in which vegetation is 

 in its greatest vigor, although we should, if the 

 land is naturally thin and weak, prefer sowing the 

 seed the subsequent spring. 



If thorough improvement is contemplated, the 

 grass may be turned in, in June, and a crop of 

 peas, millet, or buckwheat sown to be turned 

 down as a green dressing, and a few bushels of 

 ashes and gypsum sown, either before or after 

 plowing. 



In no case should a ripe crop be taken, nor 

 should the young grass be fed by cattle untiL it 

 has thoroughly radicated or taken strong root. 



In plowing, care should be taken to let the plow 

 run a little deeper, if possible, than in previous 

 plowings, in order to tui'n up some of the subsoil, 

 and completely to inhume whatever of soluble 

 matter of a vegetable nature there may be on the 

 surface, as well as to furnish a deep and genial 

 medium for the expansion and sustenance of the 

 young roots. 



Lands managed in this way, we have no doubt 

 would produce bountifully for four or five years, 

 when they should again be plowed and laid down 

 as before. Four years is sufficiently long to crop 

 any land laid down to grass, unless it be copious- 

 ly manured, or it is moist, swale land, that receives 

 the annual wash of surrounding higher lands. 

 Long cropping and short feeding in the fall and 

 spring, and no dressing, will infallibly ensure short 

 crops, an inadequate return for the cost and trou- 

 ble of cultivation, and poverty in the end ! On 

 this topic a writer very truly remarks : 



"However inveterate may be our prejudices 

 against book farming, as it is ignominiously de- 

 nominated, one great and startling truth is clearly 

 obvious, — we must either remove our former mill- 

 horse course of trudging blindfold through the 

 routine of those ancient customs and traditionary 

 usages which have been so long and fatally per- 

 petuated from father to son, or renounce our 

 farms. There is no alternative. We have out- 



