442 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



Drought injures grass-land in several ways. It 

 not only reduces the water content of the soil, 

 because of which some grasses suffer more than 

 others, but it causes the soil to bake and crack and 

 so injures the roots. Under such 

 conditions, deep-rooted grasses, 

 as tall oat-grass and awnless 

 brome, may survive; and grasses 

 having nar- 

 row, bristle- 

 like leaves, 

 such as 

 sheep's fes- 

 cue, tend to 

 Kg. 670. Root digger or grass-hoe. Some- Increase, 

 times used for destroying weeds. wnile SUC n 



grasses a s 

 red-top, which have iiat leaves, will lose ground. 

 Thus the changing seasons may be one of the prime 

 causes for changes in the herbage of a pasture. 



(5) Injudicious management. Timothy may be 

 ruined by too early cutting, time not having been 

 given for food to be stored in its thickened stem, 

 which would tide the plant over the summer 

 droughts. Grazing too close has the same effect, 

 especially if done late in the fall. Grasses may be 

 pulled up by animals or the land may be poached 

 by the stock if they are turned oh when it is too 

 wet. 



Certain grasses, such as timothy, are perennial 

 by means of stolons. The stolons are formed about 

 the same time the seed is developed. Anything 

 which prevents the formation of the stolon causes 

 the death of the plant and a bare spot in the 

 pasture. 



Renovation of worn-out meadows and pastures. 



One of the best ways to renew grass-land or to 

 maintain it in good condition is to fatten cattle or 

 sheep on it, feeding the animals concentrated feeds 

 and, in some cases, hay and forage in addition. 

 Sheep are most highly esteemed, because they eat 

 so many weeds and because their droppings are 

 scattered uniformly over the land. In the case of 

 cattle or horses, the droppings should be distributed 

 every two or three months by running a chain 

 harrow or a weeder over the land. 



The application of barnyard manure, lime or 

 fertilizers is profitable in many cases. Barnyard 

 manure has a more lasting influence than most fer- 

 tilizers. To determine which is the most profitable 

 fertilizer to use, a fertilizer test should be made 

 and maintained for a term of years. Lime may be 

 applied at the rate of 1,000 pounds per acre, once 

 in every three to five years. In addition to the 

 above, the pasture should be harrowed in the spring 

 or fall as soon as it shows signs of becoming thin 

 or sod-bound, the disk-harrow being an excellent 

 tool for the purpose, although the spring-toothed 

 or spike-toothed harrows may be used in some 

 cases. The weeds should be mown either once or 

 twice a year before they bloom, and liberal appli- 

 cations of grass seed made every two or three 

 years, in spring or fall after the harrowing. Under 

 such management, not only may land that is now 



good meadow or pasture be maintained as such, 

 but much of the poor meadow and pastures of the 

 country may be converted into good ones. 



Literature. 



Spillman, Farm Grasses of the United States, 

 Orange Judd Company, New York City ; Sutton, 

 Permanent and Temporary Pastures, London ; 

 Farmers' Bulletins of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, No. Ill, 

 the Farmer's Interest in Good Seed, and No. 123, 

 Red Clover Seed; Division of Agrostology, United 

 States Department of Agriculture, Bulletin No. 14, 

 Economic Grasses; Fraser, Pastures and Meadows, 

 Farmers' Reading -Course, Bulletin No. 10, New 

 York State College of Agriculture, Ithaca, New 

 York ; Same, Pastures and Meadows, Report of the 

 Bureau of Farmers' Institutes of New York, 1903, 

 pp. 246-295 ; Flint, Grasses and Forage Plants, 

 J. H. Sanders Publishing Company, Chicago ; Shaw, 

 Grasses and Clovers, etc., Northrup, King & Co., 

 Minneapolis, 1895; Same, Clovers, Orange Judd 

 Company, New York City; Wallace, Clover Cul- 

 ture, Iowa Homestead, Des Moines, Iowa, 1892 ; 

 Beal, The Grasses of North America, two vols., 

 Henry Holt & Co., 1897 ; Fream, The Complete 

 Grazier, 1893 ; Killebrew, Grasses and Forage 

 Plants. In addition, there are very many excellent 

 discussions in the publications of the national De- 

 partment of Agriculture and of the various state 

 and provincial experiment stations. [See references 

 to literature under various articles on forage plants 

 and under the article on Grasses.] 



Grasses and Clovers Used in Meadows and 

 Pastures. 



By W. J. Spillman. 



The number of American grasses is well-nigh 

 countless. It is not the purpose of this Cyclopedia 

 to consider all of them. The best that can be done 

 is to set forth the more important features of those 

 that are of leading economic importance, and to 

 suggest to the reader their uses and range of 

 adaptation. The present article treats chiefly of 

 the cultivated grasses and clovers. The succeeding 

 article considers native meadows and pastures for 

 the ranges. 



Place in the cropping system. 



With reference to the position occupied by the 

 grasses in the cropping system, we may divide the 

 United States more or less arbitrarily into six 

 divisions. The first and most important of these 

 divisions comprises in a general way those states 

 in which timothy and clover and blue-grass are the 

 principal constituents of arable grass-lands. This 

 region lies north of a line from Virginia to Kansas, 

 and east of a line from Kansas to eastern North 

 Dakota. In the Appalachian region, and in the lime- 

 stone soils of central Tennessee, are found southern 

 extensions of the area, while New England, for the 

 most part, should be considered separately. Out- 

 lying areas are found more or less generally dis- 

 tributed in the northern half of the Rocky moun- 



