62 THE COW 



the very best or two of fairly good pasture to feed 

 a cow for the summer months and even then she 

 will not be really fully fed after midsummer. On 

 the other hand, it is quite usual and feasible to 

 grow fifteen tons of silage com to the acre or 

 enough to furnish the main roughage requirements 

 of three cows for the full feeding period of two 

 hundred days when they get no food outside. 

 When fields are steep and rock-strewn, we may 

 still rely on a primitive pasture husbandry for a 

 large part of our summer feeding, but it is a 

 wasteful and extravagant method where lands are 

 level, fertile and easily tilled. This does not alter 

 the fact that there are very many farms whose 

 prosperity is bound up with their pasture areas. 



If we study the question, we cannot escape the 

 conclusion that the value of our great pasture re- 

 sources is declining with the years. This decline 

 is not rapid and perhaps it may be so slow that the 

 owner fails to be really aware of it, but if he com- 

 pares the carrying capacity of a pasture now with 

 its ability many years ago the downward tendency 

 becomes evident. As farmers we have been very 

 slow to realize that permanent pastures, like all 

 other lands, need fertilizers and care. We have 

 been quick to agree that land which is plowed 

 and sowed and harvested by a machine needs 

 manuring, but there has been a widespread yet 

 mistaken notion that land lying in pasture will 

 improve under opposite treatment. There is abso- 



