MEADOWS AND PASTURES 1 7 



European authorities. With our conditions, aDout the 

 best treatment seems to be to plow up the meadow for 

 corn at the end of the second year. Where the pasture 

 is needed, as it certainly is on beef-producing farms, 

 the old meadows may well be used for pasture a year 

 or two before plowing up for corn. Where the ma- 

 nure is available, it is good pradtice to top-dress the 

 meadow each winter after the last crop of hay is re- 

 moved in the fall. 



Instead of sowing the timothy in the fall with 

 wheat, and adding the clover in spring, it is much bet- 

 ter, in most parts of the Timothy Region, to sow the 

 timothy and clover together late in August or early in 

 September, on well-prepared and well-manured land, 

 without a so-called nurse crop of wheat or other grain. 

 This will give a heavy yield of hay the next summer. 

 After this hay crop is removed, top-dress well the next 

 winter, and cut for hay again the next summer. After 

 this, top-dress in winter and plow in spring for corn. 

 This applies to good arable land in those parts of the 

 country where timothy and clover thrive, and where 

 corn is a paying crop. Such a plan, of course, presup- 

 poses an abundance of manure. It is recognized that 

 there is much land well adapted to meadow purposes, 

 but not adapted to other ordinary crops. In certain 

 sedtions also blue-grass is so highly produdlive that it 

 pays to sow blue-grass with the timothy and clover, 

 and make a pasture of the meadow after the second- 

 crop year. (See chapters on timothy and blue-grass. ) 

 There is also a great deal of land unfit for cultivation 

 which, with proper attention, may be rendered fairly 

 produ(5live as pasture. It is therefore important to 



