ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 77 



has taken place regarding the best grasses for pasturing purposes.^ Now one 

 great difficulty with all of the useful grasses regarding their quality and de- 

 velopment has been in the state of the soil, as regards its depth and moisture. 

 It is often the case that after land is put in good producing condition, excel- 

 lent grasses creep in of themselves and occupy the soil. Wild and sour 

 grasses will not flourish on a rich drained soil. Nature provides grasses 

 suited to the swamp and the hill, but man may often so manipulate the soil 

 that it will produce those plants suited to his taste or needs. 



The uniform quality of the pasture grasses during the growing season is 

 a point secured by drainage. Plants which start in the spring and grow from 

 a saturated soil are of inferior quality and rarely sought after by stock if 

 firm dry land is accessible. In midsummer when the land has become some- 

 what drained by natural processes, the nutritive qualities are greater, and 

 the quality of the product varies with the vicissitudes of season and climate. 

 Drain this land and we secure a more uniform quality of product because the 

 soil upon which the plant feeds is kept in a more uniform state as respects 

 temperature, moisture, and physical condition. 



LENGTH OF THE FEEDING SEASON. 



It is an advantage of no little import, if by drainage we can add a month 

 or two to the pasture season. As it is with ordinary pastures, the portions 

 which are naturally drained must furnish the early spring feed, for the wet 

 parts are unfit either for animals to pass over or feed upon. Suppose that 

 the whole pasture were in a fit condition at the earliest starting of the grass, 

 we should then avoid the excessive cropping of the productive portions and 

 would in a short time have full feed for the whole herd. Grass upon drained 

 soils springs earlier and continues in growth longer in the fall, for the reason 

 that the soil becomes warm sooner in the spring and remains so longer in the 

 fall, and supports a stronger and thriftier vegetation. There is the same 

 difference that we see between the well housed and fed domestic animal at 

 spring time, and the one left to find shelter behind the hedge and dig in win- 

 ter snow for his food. The one is ready to make growth and thrive upon 

 the first offering of green grass, while the other is backward and requires 

 half of the summer to overcome the effects of a hard winter. 



DROUTH AND WET. 



Spring wet makes grass backward and injures its quality, while summer 

 drouth cuts it short in quantity. It is probable that these extremes cause 

 more solicitude to dairymen than anything else connected with feeding. 

 Drainage makes both a wet and dry soil moist, and keeps it in this state, 

 which is just the condition required by our most valuable grasses. It may 

 be remarked here, that observation teaches that ordinarily grass-lands are 

 more subject to injury from dry weather than cultivated lands. It has been 

 found that cultivation of itself has much to do with the retention of moisture 

 which condition is wanting in meadows and pastures. For this reason alone, 

 drainage would seem of greater necessity in grass-land than in cultivated 

 fields. The good effect of drains during dry weather can be proven not only 

 by the growth of vegetation, but by observing the action of a tile drain at a 

 time when the surplus water of the soil is exhausted. At evening the watev 



