BULLETIISr 397^ U. S, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



July, when they are m'^rketed. The most common practice is to 

 winter the cattle as cheaply as possible and market them in the 

 succeeding fall^ when the grass begins to fail. That the quahty of 

 these steers is good is attested by the fact that many thousands of 

 them have been exported. (Fig. 2.) 



With the exception of central Kentucky, most of the bluegrass 

 lands are unsuited to general-crop farming. They are often too 

 rocky or too steep to be plowed; yet these grazing lands sell readily 



for $75 to SI 50 an 



acre. (Fig. 3.) 



The mildness of the 

 winters in this sec- 

 tion, which allows 

 grazing through most 

 of the year and thus 

 reduces the cost of 

 wintering, is perhaps 

 the principal reason 

 why grazing is a more 

 important industry 

 here than in the re- 

 gions farther north 

 where blue grass is 

 equally well adapted. 

 There is very httle 

 bluegrass land for 

 sale, and when an 

 estate is put on the 

 market it is usually 

 purchased by citizens 

 of the same commtj- 

 nity. A well-bal- 

 anced farm in the 

 bluegrass region con- 

 sists of enough tillable 

 land to give a hving 

 to a family and produce suJfficient forage to winter as many animals 

 as can be pastured on the remainder of the farm. The grazing farms 

 usually range from 300 acres upward. There appears to be no hmit 

 to the area of grazing land which a good business man can manage. 

 There are many farms of several thousand acres. 



THE DIFFERENT GRADES OF BLUEGRASS PASTURES. 



There appear to be marked differences in the fat-producing quali- 

 ties of bluegrass, depending apparently on the character of the soil on 

 which it is grown. Practically all of the grass-fed export cattle are 



Fig. 1. — Outline map of tlie eastern United States, showing by 

 shaded lines the region where bluegrass pastures predominate. 



