24 FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 



made not later than the third week in August. After such autumn 

 cutting the young meadow should not be pastured. Early the fol- 

 lowing spring, if the land is sufficiently well drained, the use of a 

 heavy roller is often beneficial. 



On the dryer prairie soils, where a nurse crop may not be used, 

 two or three cuttings with a mowing machine will suppress the weeds 

 and conserve the moisture, but the crop should not be cut after the 

 middle of August. 



The lack of winter protection for young meadows is the most 

 common cause of reduced yields and inferior quality of hay. During 

 dry seasons, when natural pastures and fodder crops are short, the 

 use of newly seeded meadows immediately the nurse crop is removed 

 sometimes seems unavoidable, even when the seedling plants are 

 struggling for existence and much reduced in vigour by their com- 

 petition with a nurse crop that has robbed them of moisture rather 

 than protected them. It is under just such conditions that pasturing 

 is most disastrous. For every pound of forage taken from the young 

 plants more than ten pounds are lost in the hay crop ; the stand will 

 be thinner and the quality of the hay poorer. The young plants 

 should completely hide the ground and show a growth of six inches 

 or more before the autumn season is past. Only when there is 

 danger of smothering the crop from a rank growth of clover, which 

 rarely occurs, is there any advantage in pasturing a young meadow 

 the first year. 



Grasses and other fodder plants should be cut when the 

 crop has reached its maximum value, in yield and quality, for cured 

 hay; the effect on the aftermath or succeeding crops should also 

 be considered. The main natural function of the plant is to repro- 

 duce itself. Until its seed-bearing organs have been fertilized, it 

 collects nutriment and stores it up in its tissues for the development 

 and maturing of seeds. As soon as the flower is fertilized, the seed 

 draws on the store of nourishment in the stems and leaves and the 

 plant begins to harden. With some kinds of fodder plants, such as 

 Blue-joint Grass, that depend largely on their roots for reproduction 

 and bear few seeds, the hardening of the plant is less pronounced; but 

 m nearly all the most valuable kinds the change from succulent and 

 pliable tissues to brittle and woody stems and leaves is rapid and 

 marked. Even before fertilization, many of the fodder plants, such 

 as Alfalfa, Western Rye Grass and Timothy, commence to harden. 



If cut before the flowers are ripe for fertilization, the plant will 

 renew its efforts to reproduce itself, and the aftermath or second crop 



