102 PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY PASTURES 



The 



Immedia te A fter-Mana gement 



of New Pastures 



A spring sowing of grasses is made at a time when atmospheric 

 changes are sudden and severe, and grass seeds are not so well 

 constituted for resisting these violent changes as corn and other 

 heavy seeds. Besides, the spring is never so dry and cold as to 

 prevent the growth of weeds, nor is the May sun hot enough 

 to kill them ; but after sowing, a long spell of unfavourable 

 weather will seriously retard the grasses. Meanwhile the 

 ground may be covered with chickweed, groundsel, 1 and other 

 weeds. As these extend, the chances of the grasses dimmish, 

 until at length it is possible that only a few spots will be found 

 on which they show sufficiently to prove that there would have 

 been a crop had circumstances been favourable. In a back- 

 ward spring early sowing increases the danger of the grasses 

 being smothered by weeds. 



But if early sowing has its perils, late sowing is not free 

 from them. From the former arises the possibility that the 

 young grasses will be injured by weeds, and from the latter 

 that before the grasses are sufficiently established to endure 

 great heat, they may be scorched beyond recovery by fierce 

 sunshine. Or the soil may be so dry that the germination of 

 the seed is dependent on rain, and if only a brief shower falls, 

 the seeds will start. Then, should there come the dry blast of 

 an east wind, or burning drought, every seedling will perish. 



1 Groundsel will actually flower when the thermometer stands near the freezing- 

 point. Humboldt observed the plant growing in the upper reaches of the Andes, just 

 below the region of eternal snow, where the sun has little power and where hurricanes 

 are incessant. 



