COW-PASTUEES AND COW-PATHS 51 



suited for pasture but not for a more intensive 

 agriculture, and any extensive scheme of dairy 

 practice must recognize this fact. 



It is true that the changes and advances of re- 

 cent years have made pasture of relatively less im- 

 portance than of old, but nevertheless the annual 

 revenue derived from these old hillside pastures 

 is a vast sum. For example, the preeminent month 

 of all the year for milk production is June, and the 

 tremendous flood of milk which each year almost 

 inundates our manufacturing facilities and de- 

 moralizes our markets is produced wholly from 

 pasture. Our fathers expected a cow to derive her 

 entire living from the open fields from the middle 

 of May until the last frosted grass of late October 

 was closely bitten off. We of a wiser generation 

 have come to understand that there is only a month 

 or two in the year of really good pasture. Progres- 

 sive cow-keepers almost universally supplement the 

 grass after July 1st with grain, or better, with 

 liberal feeding of silage stored the previous Sep- 

 tember or else with fresh-cut oats and peas in 

 mixture or other soiling forage. 



Pasture is at once both the cheapest and most 

 expensive of feeds — cheap because the cow gathers 

 it herself and because we usually set a low value 

 on the land where it grows, and yet expensive as 

 the total nutrients to the acre of pasture are so 

 small as compared with those secured from more 

 intensive cropping systems. It requires an acre of 



