SEEDING TO FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 1 9 



SEEDING TO FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 



The preparation of the soil prior to seeding with grasses and 

 clovers is usually intended primarily for the benefit of the nurse 

 crop. To get a good catch, it is important that the surface soil be 

 of fine tilth, friable, well-drained and contain a liberal supply of 

 decaying vegetable matter. The tender seedling plants require 

 plenty of moisture, though they are injured by an excess. If the 

 soil lacks humus and a hard crust is formed over its surface, growth 

 will be stunted and the young plants will suffer from even a few hot, 

 dry days. 



Seeding to grasses and clovers should follow a cleaning crop 

 that has had deep and thorough cultivation. The suppression of 

 perennial weeds should precede the making of a meadow. Such a 

 location as a clayey hillside, where the soil is apt to become hard 

 after heavy rains, may be greatly improved by a light top-dressing 

 of rotted stable manure, which should be incorporated with the 

 surface soil by harrowing. On low, wet lands the best possible 

 surface drainage should be provided, even for grasses that like 

 abundant moisture. On the dryer prairie soils the subsoil should 

 be packed to keep the moisture near the surface until the seedlings 

 have grown robust. 



Nurse crops are designed, in part at least, for the protection 

 of seedling plants of grasses and clovers. When all the soil moisture 

 does not have to be saved for the meadow, a light nurse crop screens 

 the seedlings from the burning heat of the sun; it helps to suppress 

 weeds until the grasses have sufficient vigour to compete with them ; 

 and it may give a return from the land while the meadow is devel- 

 oping. Wheat or barley is generally considered most satisfactory 

 as a nurse crop. Oats, even with thin seeding, are later to mature 

 and apt to make too much shade. Standing in a nurse crop, one 

 should be able at any time during the growing season to see the 

 young grass ten or twelve feet away. The nurse crop should be 

 ready to harvest as soon as the grasses commence to tiller or stool out 

 and the clovers or other legumes to develop new shoots or branches 

 from the crown. 



In districts where the rainfall is less than thirty inches, or not 

 well distributed throughout the growing season, the nurse crop may 

 rob the young fodder plants of necessary moisture. In some seasons 

 a good stand of Red Clover is difficult to obtain, partly because of 

 the lack of humus in the soil, but also because the nurse crop, fre- 

 quently oats, robs the young plants of the available moisture. If 



28549-2i 



