The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-05-03
Permanent Pastures.

We can have pastures that will i'm
prove every year without the p!ow.-
There are thousands of farms in the
cheese districts of England where the
pillow is not used at all in the pastures.
There is soft velvet turf. the result of
century of close feeding. There are
millions of acres of pasture in the trans
Missouri country fed for ages by the
buffalo and the antelope, growing richer
every year by the grazing of these ami
mails and the decay of the buffalo grass.
In the best grazing districts of New
York and Western Connecticut, there
are large farms kept in permanent pas
ture, and growing pore fertile every
year by the feeding of beefcattle. The
only fertilizer applied beside the drop
pings of the cattle is an occasional
dressing of plaster, at the rate of
bushel to the acre. Some of these farms
will carry bullock to the acre, and
leave thick mat of grass upon the sod
when the bullocks are sold off in the
Fall. The store cattle are bought in
the market in the Spring, and put in
the pastures as soon as grass starts suf-
ficiently to feed them. The cattle in
crease in weight and in the quality of
the beef, during the Summer, and are
sold to the butchers as soon as they are
ripe, from August to November One
man can take. care Of several hundred
cattle, and the Winter is a season of
leisure. Where there is good Judgment
in buying and selling, the profits of this
kind of farming are very handsome, and
the farm is all the while improving in
fertility. Everything it produces is
returned to it again.
Of course all farmers can not follow
grazing, but the low price of grains and
the high price Of meats indicate that
raising of meats pays better than the
raising of grain. Inthe new settlements
of the West they must still raise grain,
for there is little capital there, and the
raising of grain is the easiest way of
making money. But in the more thickly
settled portions of the country, where
the farmer has good home market for
beef and mutton, veal and lamb, and
labor is high, he should enlarge his pas
lures and increase his stock 1t is sur
prising to see the change effected in a
few years upon an old pasture by heavy
grazing. We came into possession of
an old rented farm three years since,
that carried but four cows, pair of
horses, and small flock of sheep
There were hundred acres or more
devoted to pasture, badly moss-grown,
weedy, and bushy, from want of graz
ing. About thirty head of cattle and
twenty-five sheep with their lambs have
been kept in good condition in this old
pasture the past season, although TWEEN
ty acres of it were devoted to rye The
feed has been more than quadrup!ed in
quantity, and greatly improved in quail
ity White clover has come in abur-
dainty, as have fine grasses, and the
weeds and brush are disappearing under
the noses of the sheep. If the bushes
are large, it is necessary to pillow, or to
cut them frequently to get rid Of them
But almost any neglected pasture, free
of brush, may be restored by grazing
Top-dressing with concentrated fertili-
zers will hasten the process of ameliora-
ton. In some districts plaster will be
sufficient, but the action Of plaster is so
unequal that an experiment only can
tell if it is advisable to use it. In ALL
bone-dust and ashes will be good and
paying investments.