Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-05-02


best and neglecting the bushes which Of
tentimes grow where, If eradicated, the
best grass would be found. Is It wonder
that under this treatment the pastures
have deprecated, and will they not soon
be valueless, unless short corner Is stunned,
and different course pursued2
As remedy we suggest simply sensible
treatment, and returning payment for what
Is taken from them.
Bushes and old dead grasses should DO
removed early in the spring. After a few
warm days in spring, and before green
grass has started, fire will run over the
pastures in a sunny day, and kill the bush
es; and though the pastures may look
black for few days, they will soon
be green again. Though the amount of
asheJ from the grasses and scurf burned
may not be large, il is valuable, and will
enrich the soil, and the grass that springs
up will be sweet and green, and will be
fed off closely. The sun, sufficient to dry
the grass enough for burning, will not
have dried the underbrush in the wood, or
the fences, enough to burn, and fire may
be set with impunity almost anywhere.
Our stock is almost always turned into
pastures too early in spring. At this time
the land is liable to be poached up by their
feet and the grass roots killed by tramp
ling, or pulled out of tho yielding ground
by the hungry mouths of feeding cattle.
If pasture lands are plowed and planted,
does not justice 10 them, and the true in
terest of the owner alike, demand the re-
turn Of the profit of the crop raised, and
perhaps more, in the shape of plaster, bone,
ashes, and especially of seed, as well as to
keep the stock Off this land until the grass
roots are strongly set?
If too rocky to pillow and reseed, an APP
plication of the fertilizers above alluded to,
as soon as the snow is off, will show their
effects in abundant green grass, especially
if worked in with a harrow with sharp
teeth, thickly set, and loaded with chains.
A liberal application of bone will stop the
COW from chewing bones, to supply herself
with the phosphates her system demands,
| but which the old and exhausted pastures
| do not contain.
Nothing deteriorates pasture faster than
the raising of milk and young stock, for
| the milk extracts enormous amounts OF
| phosphates from the SOIL as also do the
bones of growing animals and the ma
nure from such creatures is less valuable
| for the improvement of the pasture; for il
| is plain that the valuable portion of the
food going to the growth of the animal, or
| the production of milk, cannot pass off in
the manure, and is consequently just SC
much robbed from the pasture. Full
grown oxen, and fattening cows, not Civ
| ing milk, are probably the best stock for
pastures, except sheep, because they have
| got their growth, and their manure returns
| to the pasture nearly all the elements the
feed producing it contained.
| Sheep probably benefit pasture most
because they eradicate much vile stuff
choose knobs for their resting places,
where the manure is generally most need
ed, and distribute it most evenly. Theil
manure is fine, and extremely valuable.
The past three dry seasons should have
taught us to appreciate the value of the
low lands in our pastures; for without
these places the cattle must in many in
stances have persisted for want of feed
Yet too many farmers regard these as
merely waste portions of their pastures
These lands are the most valuable in the
whole pasture, in their season, and if drain
ed, and the scurf and coarse grass burned
off in early spring, will sustain the stock
oftentimes when without this feed, it would
have to resort 10 the barn.
| We trust these hints will be sufficient tc
impress our readers with the importance
of increased and immediate attention t.
our pastures; and as many of these sug
gestons must be acted upon in early spring
if at all, we have taken this time to call thu
attention of the farmers of New England t.
a matter that we deem of great Importance
to their interest.-N. e. Farmer.