The Morgantown monitor. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1863-1864, 1863-05-09
farmers department.
improvement Of Pastures.

z al J
| The condition of the pastures in
many Of the older dairying districts
is sad spectacle. Farms that once
would carry forty cows, and make
eight Thousand pounds of butter will
not now support halfthat number.
In the familiar language of these
districts, the land has been cewed to
death. The pastures have been fed
by cows from time immemorial, re-
ceiving only the manure dropped by
the animals during the day. Three
fourths Of all that the land produced
was carried away to the yard, and
none of this came back. The soil
grew thin, and the, grasses died out
for want Of nourishment. What can
be done to bring up such pastures?
An ounce of practice is said to be
worth pound of theory. 1t is, un-
doubtedly, if of the right kind. In
the Spring Of 1860 the writer came
into possession of two acre lot Of
rundown meadow. 1t was used as
pasture because there was not grass
enough upon it to pay for cutting
As it was convenient to the house,
used it for yarding the COWS at night.
They were pastured elsewhere part
Of the time, and thus all the pro-
ducts of these two acres, and nearly
four more beside, were dropped upon
the soil by the cattle. There has
been very great improvement in
the yield of grass the past season,
and the lot, if used for meadow ano-
ther year, will probably cut twice as
much hay as it did in the Summer of
1860. The whole secret Of the inl-
provement is, that more bas been re-
turned to the soil than has been Ia
ken away.
A similar improvement is witness
ed in pastures devoted to sheep, if
they are not fed too closely. Every
thing the land produces is returned
to it by the sheep, together with a
good deal the land would not get,
but for the intervention of the feed
ing animals. 1t is sometimes claim
ed that nothing is gained to the land
by passing the crops through the
bodies of animals; that hundred
pounds of hay rotted upon the land,
is worth as much as the 100 pounds
fed out and returned in the shape of
manure. But this cannot be 80, for
the animal draws some elements Of
its body from air and water, as we'll
as hay, while the manure quickens
the energies of the soil, as the rotted
hay would not.
1t is we'll known in the districts
devoted to the feeding of fat cattle,
on the ridges of Dutchess and Put
nam counties, and the western part Of
Connecticut, that lands once poor, or
nearly dun out by hard cropping or
pasturing, have been brought up to
very great fertility, by plaster and
feeding animals. From one to two
bushels OF plaster per acre are sown
every year, and fattcning cattle three
years old and upward are kept in
them from Spring until Fall. When
the animals are turned in they have
their frames already made, and there
is no great draft upon the soil for
bone earth. The whole grass is re-
turned to the soil in the manure, ex-
cept the little carried off in the gain
Of the cattle. Sometimes change
of stock from COWS to fattening bull
locks, or to sheep, will be all that is
necessary for improving q worn out
pasture. If COWS are kept, there
must be top-dressing, or alienation
from pasture to hoed crops, with
heavy manuring. If the land is not
arabic, top dressing with compost or
with plaster in districts where it does
coed will be sufficient.
CoENprrIcTIT