THE MANAGEMENT OF OLD GEASS LAND. 



107 



it IS not so much the cutting of a meadow which is injurious, 

 but withholding the top-dressing of manure or compost which all 

 mown grass should annually receive. 



Again, immense damage is done to some pastures by cutting 

 the crops for hay very late in the season. Many of the grasses 

 have time to form and ripen their seeds, and nothing exhausts 

 plants so much. Some of the finer grasses cannot safely be taxed 

 in this Avay. They may endure the ordeal once or twice, but if 

 the drain on their resources is frequently repeated they gradually 

 dwindle away. So long as these grasses are mown early, or 

 grazed, they are perfectly perennial, as is conclusively proved by 

 their continued existence in some of the finest old pastures of 

 the kingdom where they have never been allowed to seed. To 

 manage any pasture or meadow in such a way as to exterminate 

 some of its most valuable and nutritious grasses is surely killing 

 tlie goose which lays the golden egg. And this is exactly what 

 is done by constant greed for the rick. Of course an early crop 

 means a smaller bulk of hay, but unless the turf is exceptional iu 

 character the quality is higher than from a later cutting,^ and the 

 loss of bulk in the first instance results in a net gain, for the 

 aftermath will be the greater, and the pasture will not be 

 damaged for future seasons. "Where grasses perish, the gaps 

 are almost certain to be filled up by worthless or noxious forms 

 of vegetation, and thus the herbage diminishes in value so long 

 as a false system of management is pursued. 



, Another source of injury to pastures arises from the manner 



^ Warington gives tlie following analyses, made ia each case after the fodder had 

 heen dried at 212° F., to show the comparative feeding value of three crops of grass 

 taken from the same field at' ditferent dates. The first cutting was made when the 

 herhage was lit for feeding off, the second at the time the crop was in good condition for 

 hay, and the third when it was past its prime, and had become somewhat coarse and 

 long in stem, but still was well harvested. 



