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from those having a northern exposure. The meadows with eastern ex- 

 posures will yield more hay upon similar soils than those having western 

 exposures, but at the cost of a slightly inferior product. From the sun 

 hay derives its sweetness and to the sun it is largely indebted for its rich 

 stores of nutritive juices. Experience and analyses have demonstrated 

 the fact that hay grown on well-prepared, well-drained and well-manured 

 soils is more valuable than that grown on prairie or other unimproved 

 lands in the larger content of its flesh-forming material; in the diminution 

 of its indigestible matter; in the amount of its saccharine and other solu- 

 ble constituents; in its succulence and fatty matters, and in its compara- 

 tive freedom from dust, trash and noxious weeds. Every observing 

 farmer knows that stock prefer the grasses grown on rich, well-prepared 

 land to the grasses of the highway pastures or those grown on poor land. 

 They prefer the grasses grown in the sun to the grasses grown in the 

 shade, and the grasses grown in a dry season to those grown during the 

 prevalence of rain and cloudy weather. The unerring instincts of domes- 

 tic animals suggest many valuable ideas. Shade in a pasture, though 

 desirable to a limited extent for protecting stock from the fervor of a 

 mid-day sun, is highly detrimental to the nutritiousness of the grasses. 

 Some shade should be provided in every pasture but never in a meadow, 

 for all grasses grown in a meadow under shade are injured for hay 

 making. 



Lands intended for meadows should be prepared in the very best 

 manner. Not only should the drainage be made perfect, if not so nat- 

 urally, but the soils should be as well prepared as for the growing of the 

 most highly cultivated crops. It should be put in the finest mechanical 

 condition. Every trace of wild growth and of unimproved land should 

 be effaced. Stumps should be extracted so that mowers and horse rakes 

 may be used. All bushes, roots, stones, trash, brush and the turf of wild 

 grasses and weeds, should be removed or destroyed. The cultivation of 

 the land for a few years in crops requiring clean cultivation and high fer- 

 tilization is probably the best preparation for a meadow. A crop of an- 

 nual grass such as millet fits the land for a perennial meadow by destroy- 

 ing the weeds. New land with fertile soils, however, when put in good 

 tilth, grows the meadow grasses to perfection. If old land is selected it 

 should be deeply plowed and, if possible, sub-soiled; for deep tillage is 

 essential to the luxuriant growth of the perennial grasses. Their roots 

 constantly seek a lower level, and if the land is at first drained and after- 

 wards fertilized year after year, and kept free from noxious weeds, the 

 meadow will grow stronger and better with time. 



There is a great difference in the duration of grasses and in their time 

 of maturing. Some live but a short time; others are more permanent. 

 Some mature in one year; others do not become firmly established for 

 several years. Some are very nutritious; others are more showy than 

 useful. Different species require different soils and in sowing a meadow 

 some regard must be had for these differences. A much greater amount 

 of hay may be made by sowing several species that ripen together. This 

 arises from the fact that some grasses will grow in one situation but not 

 in another and by the further fact that a plant of one species is a greater 



