The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1873-05-08
VOLUME 43.
Permanent Pastures.

We can have pastures that will improve
every year without the plough. There are
thousands of farms in the cheese districts
of England where the plough is not used at
all in the pastures. There is a soft velvety
turf, the result of century of close feed
ing. 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
animals 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 pasture, and grow
ing more fertile every year by the feeding
of beef cattle. The only fertilizer applied
beside the droppings of the cattle is an
occasional dressing of plaster, at the rate
of a 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 sprinl. and put in the pastures as
soon as grass starts sufficiently to feed
them. The cattle increase in weight, and
in the quality of the beef, during the sum-
mer, 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 buy
and selling, the prot is of this kind of farm
ing are very handsome, and the farm is all
the while improving in fertility. Every
thing it produces is returned to it again.
Of course all farmers cannot follow graz
ing. but the low price of grains and the
high price of meats indicate that the rails
ing of meats pays better than the raising
OF grain In the 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 Il good home
market for beef and mutton, veal and lamb,
and labor is high, he should enlarge his
pastures and increase his stock. 1t is sur
prisng 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, q small tiock of
sheep. There was a hundred acres or more,
devoted to pasture, badly moss grown.
weedy, and bushy, from want of grazing.
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 twenty acres of it We're
devoted to rye. The feed has been more
than quadrupled in quantity, and greatly
improved in quality. White clover has
come in abundantly, 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 plough, or to
cut them frequently to get rid of them.
But almost any neglected pasture, tree of
brush, may be restored by grazing. Top
dressing with concentrated fertilizers will
hasten the process of ameioration. 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. Ameri-
can Agriculturist.