Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1877 — Neglect of Pastures. [ARTICLE]

Neglect of Pastures.

This is the only country in the world—where any pretensions are made to good farming—Uiat no attention is given to improving pastures. In taking up a new form, the poorest portion ts invariably set apart for the pasture. After the best portions are planted and sown to annual crops, as long as they will pay the cost of cultivation, the land is seeded down to grass. This is cut and cured for hay, till the farmer is ashamed of (he small amount he gets from an acre, when he concludes that he will convert the field into a pasture. He seldom seems to think that his pasture is his great source of wealth; that his cows get from it the materials which furnish milk; that the grass it produces makes most of the wool, beef and mutton he has to sell; and that ail his young cattle obtain tbeir living from the pasture about seven months in every year. He seems to forget that he and his teams work all summer chiefly to obtain food which the stock consumes during the winter, while his pastures furnish a supply for a longer pet iod, without any labor being expended upon them. Land once turned out to pasture is doomed to neglect so long as it is devoted to that purpose. Weeds and bushes are permitted to spring up and spread at will. Aa the grass, in places, becomes killed out, the spots are allowed to remain bairen. A large proportion of the stock kept in tbe pasture are yarded at night, and most of their droppings are left, whence they are taken to cultivate fields. Even those that fall ou. the pasture are not broken up and scattered, as they should be. Tie rank grasses which spring up, but Which are not eaten by the stock, are allowed to seed, and in this way gradually extend over a large portion of the ground. No Western farmer thinks to apply farm-yard, mineral or commercial fertilizers to his pasture. If a portion of tt happens to become rich by the cattle, sheep or colts remaining on it during the night, the chances are that he will plow it up and put it in cultivated crops; and turn out another piece of land that is in too poor condition to produce corn, grain or hay ~

In England, pastures receive constant attention, and increase in 'productiveness year by year. They sre generally in so high sstatoof fertility that a good crop of hay may be harvested from them, If tiie stock is taken off, as is done occasionally. They are manured like lanija which produce annual crops, the fertilizers being applied late ia the fall or very early in the spring. They are ordinarily mown ■t least once every season, so as to keep down tlie weeds and coarse grasses. By cutting them off, short grasses spring up, while the weeds and rank grasses that are cut down help enrich the soil. The tart, once well established, may not be turned during a century; but it is occasionally scarified by a utensil made especially for the purpose, so as to lay bare sgme fresh soil, on which the seed of more valuable grasses may be Bown. A greut variety of grasses is produced on English pastures, and attention is given to seeding peculiar soils and locations with grasses that arc adapted to them. In this country little or no attention 1b given to this matter, but the grasses are left to establish themselves ’as best they will. In some localities w'hite clover, redtop and blue grass, all good pasture grasses, will, by a process of self-feeding or extension of their roots, establish themselves over A considerable amount of ground. Under unfavorable circumstances, however, sorrel, burdock, thistles and coarse grasses will take possession of the land. —Chi capo Times.