112 PERMANENT AND TEMPORAEY PASTURES. 



Hints on Haymaking. 



A GOOD deal has been written for and against the practice of 

 mowing and grazing alternately. Strictly speaking, meadow 

 land is always mown, and pasture land is always grazed. Both 

 the terms and the practice are now generally regarded as con- 

 vertible. Yet there is more in the distinction than appears at 

 first sight. Certain grasses are better adapted for the scythe 

 than for being eaten down by stock, and some fields contain a 

 preponderance of one or more of these varieties. A meadow 

 which answers to its strict definition should consist of such 

 grasses as flower almost simultaneously, so that the entire crop 

 may be ready for mowing at one time. Such land will, of 

 necessity, be most unsatisfactory for grazing. There will be no 

 early or late grasses for the cattle, but an overpowering crop in 

 June and July, which cannot be fed off economically. On the 

 other hand, a good pasture containing such grasses as will ensure 

 a continued succession of food yields a poor hay crop. However, 

 the question before us now is not the best means of creating 

 either the one or the other, but the turning into hay of such 

 grass as may have been set apart for that purpose. 



The presence of stones, crocks, and other hard rubbish 

 which may have been deposited by previous dressings not only 

 diminishes the crop while growing, but will by-and-by make it 

 necessary to set the machine high enough to avoid breakage. 

 Now the mower should always be set as low as possible, for the 

 bottom herbage is, weight for weight, always more valuable than 

 the top, and every inch of the former counts both in weight 



