12 FORAGE CROPS 
the land shall be top-dressed occasionally with lime 
and commercial fertilizer or manure, that wet places 
be suitably drained, that fresh seeding be made as 
occasion demands and that care be exercised in 
grazing them. With increased supplies of concen- 
trated plant-food, and knowledge concerning their 
adaptability and usefulness in feeding plants, we 
can now give suggestions which cannot fail to be of 
great service to the farmer, not only in reducing the 
expense of forage, but increasing the value of lands. 
The same is true, in a degree, as to the main- 
tenance of mowing meadows. Much labor would 
be saved, and the period of profitable cropping 
extended, if proper care were taken in seeding down 
the meadows and judicious treatment were given 
them afterward. Hay is one of the most valuable 
crops, taken all in all; yet less care is expended 
in the growing of this crop than in any of the 
cultivated crops. It is regarded largely as a scav- 
enger crop, which gathers up that which other 
crops have not used; but rather it should be re- 
garded as a crop that responds to proper treat- 
ment and that can utilize profitably direct applica- 
tions of plant-food. 
