American Agriculturist, April 7,1923 
313 
The Fight in the Pasture Lot 
{Continued from page 306) 
lent of around 100 pounds of acid phos¬ 
phate, 30 to 40 pounds of limestone, as 
well as nitrogen and potash. With the 
milk production most dairies get during 
the late spring and early summer, it is 
easy to figure out why lime and acid 
phosphate seem to be needed by many 
pastures. In addition, from 300 to 500 
pounds of lime are removed yearly from 
an acre by leaching brought about by 
the rainfall. Where young stock are 
on pasture, the plant foods are used up 
rapidly. A 1,000-pound animal sold 
removes a slightly greater amount than 
10,000 pounds of milk. 
Another reason for attention to pas¬ 
tures in sections where limestone is 
lacking is that the blue grass grown 
where there is plenty of lime contains 
three times as much lime as that grow¬ 
ing on sour soils. This means that it is 
going to be much harder for the farmer 
with the acid or sour pasture to produce 
a thrifty, hard-boned animal until he 
has done something to build up the lime 
content. 
It has been learned that the reason 
for the paint brush and other weeds 
coming into many pastures so freely is 
that they are nature’s scavengers, and 
can live where some plant food neces¬ 
sary for the growth of grasses is lack¬ 
ing. The grass plants, becoming weak 
through this lack, are easily driven out 
by the stronger growing weeds. Thus 
the problem of the “devil weeds” is 
solved, once the stocks of plant food 
have been built up to a point where 
bluegrass and clover will thrive. If 
work is started before the pasture be¬ 
comes too poor, the weakened plants 
will usually come back without reseed¬ 
ing. Lime and acid phosphate will turn 
the trick, for most soils of the dairy 
sections have an abundance of potash, 
and the clovers will supply the nitrogen, 
once they have been coaxed back'to life. 
Briefly summarized, the lessons 
learned from a tour or inspection _ of 
the many trial strips of surface im¬ 
provement are somewhat as follows: 
Where the soil contains sufficient lime 
—and this can be easily ascertained-— 
the application of 16 per cent acid 
phosphate at the rate of 300 to _ 400 
pounds per acre is usually sufficient. 
At present prices the cost of the mate¬ 
rial for an acre will not exceed $4, and 
the effect should last for at least three 
years or more. 
Where lime is lacking, an applica¬ 
tion of one ton of ground limestone 
will often produce results. The cost 
of this will vary greatly, according to 
the distance from the quarry. Ap¬ 
proximately, $2.50 bulk to $5 in sacks, 
plus freight, will cover the range of 
the cost of a ton in most cases. Many 
pastures, though, are lacking phos¬ 
phorus as well as lime, and the use of 
200 or 300 pounds of the acid rock 
should be a paying investment. The 
lime should last from six to ten years 
before renewal is needed. 
As for time of application, the lime 
and acid phosphate can be put on at 
any time, although slightly better re¬ 
sults may result from fall or early 
spring treatment. This will enable the 
dairy farmer to make his pasture im¬ 
provement work a more or less in-be¬ 
tween job. Climatic conditions during 
the year of application will have ,some 
effect on results. The old sod may be 
gone over with a drag either before 
or after the lime and phosphate is ap¬ 
plied, but this does not always show 
definite results. 
Where the pasture has gotten very 
poor, and the plant life gone with the 
exception of the weeds, some grass seed 
may be necessary. This must be ap¬ 
plied very early in the spring, prefer¬ 
ably while the ground is honeycombed. 
The use of a drag when seed is applied 
is a very good thing. The grass mix¬ 
tures that are recommended by the Ex¬ 
tension Department as being the best 
are as follows: 
Where land is suited for red clover, 
or where sufficient lime/has been ap¬ 
plied to make it suitably— 
Timothy ..:.. 
. 8 pounds 
Red Clover. 
. 5 
U 
Alsike Clover.. 
. 4 
(( 
Kentucky Blue Grass., 
. 4 
a 
Meadow Fescue. 
. 4 
u 
Orchard Grass. 
4 
u 
White Clover. 
. 2 
For land unsuited for growing red 
clover, the mixture is changed by elimi¬ 
nating red clover, increasing the alsike, 
and changing the grasses to suit the 
conditions. A recommendable mixture 
is as follows: 
Timothy . 8 pounds 
Red Top.4 “ 
Alsike Clover. 6 “ 
Canadian Blue Grass.. 4 “ 
Orchard Grass. 4 “ 
White Clover. 2 “ 
Froni one-third to one-half of the 
mixture selected should be used on an 
acre the first year. The following 
spring another application of like 
amount should be made. These mix¬ 
tures are also the best for seeding down 
plow land when it is intended to turn 
it into pasture later. 
With all these things accomplished, 
the matter of succulent pasture for the 
future is left in the hands of nature, 
to be worked out in her own way and in 
due course of time. 
DO YOUR SEEDINGS WINTERKILL ? 
' How many times have you seen your 
seedings go into the winter in fine 
shape only to find them dead in the 
spring? Thousands of New York farm¬ 
ers have experienced the disastrous 
effects of such winterkilling, suffering 
considerable financial loss from idle 
land; no returns from labor or seed; 
increased feed bills and decreased milk 
checks, all due to the fact that the 
clover and alfalfa seedings failed to 
survive the winter. 
The United States Department of 
Agriculture, several state argricultural 
experiment stations, and numerous 
farmers have proved that much of the 
winterkillings of clover and alfalfa is 
due to the use of unadapted seed. Dur¬ 
ing the past two jsears, about 1,000 
carloads of clover seed and 8,000,000 
pounds of alfalfa seed have landed at 
our esatern seaports. Much of this 
seed was produced in Italy, Southern 
France and South America, and is not 
adapted to the rigorous climate of New 
York. 
Adaptation is one of the most im¬ 
portant factors influencing crop pro¬ 
duction. It is impossible to look at the 
seed and decide whether or not it is 
adapted. The only way of being cer¬ 
tain is to positively know the heredity 
of the seed, which means tracing the 
seed back to the point of production. 
The Cott^\ 
'Cos Wett'isplaced 
atanfl convenient 
point inihe j 
Bright Lights 
for More Eggs 
Union Carbide (a product of which pure lime and 
coke are the basic materials), fed automatically 
into water by the Colt “Gas Well,” brings to the 
farm the real home comforts of the city. A flood 
of sunlight in every room of the house at night 
—and in the bam, where good light is so necessary! 
This light works magic in the henhouse—makes 
hens lay more eggs—heats the incubator, too! 
And while you’re about it, have a lighting plant 
that will do your cooking, and your ironing, and 
your water heating. The Colt “Gas Well” will 
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at factory prices. 
Decide now, no need to wait 
— take a year to pay 
Get the magic story of the Colt Carbide “Gas 
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convenience and happiness to over 398,000 farm 
homes. Send the coupon today—NOW. 
J. B. COLT COMPANY 
DEPT B-11 
30 EAST 42d Street, NEW YORK 
Oldest and Largest Manufacturers of Carbide 
Lighting-and-Cooking Plants in the World 
ESTABLISHED 1891 
J. B.COLT 
COMPANY 
Dept. B-11 
30 East 42d Street 
New York 
4 ^ 
^ / Please supply me without 
^ obligation, full facts on the 
X Colt Lighting and Cooking 
^ System. 
^ X STATE. 
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/ TOWN... 
NAME 
More wonderful 
than the lamp of Aladdin— 
For Lighting 
A few pieces of Union Carbide dropped into water, 
and presto! Conveniences heretofore absolutely 
impossible on the farm become immediately 
available. 
For Cooking 
