The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-11-15
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Perma nemt Grass

However pleasant and agreeable it is in
theory to possess permanent meadow, the
sod of which shall grow and thcken for a
century, in practice we doubt if such a
meadow could be made profitable even if it
could be made possible. That it could be
made possible by the exercise of skill in man
agement and the expenditure of sufficient
money for manure in rare cases upon some
soils well fitted for this use we do not doubt;
but, that this use OF land would be upprofit-
able we feel very sure. 1t is only in very
few cases that specialties in agriculture lean
be made to pay, and then there must be
combination of favoring circumstances to
render them profitable. The dairy, for in
stance, is one of the most important of the
agricultural specialties, and the outlet for its
products is wide and extensive. For the
prosecution OF this industry there could be
nothing more desirable than rich and perma-
nent pastures for summer feeding and per-
manent meadows to yield fodder for winter
if these could be made profitable. But here
the dairyman meets with check. To say
nothing Iof the difficulty or impossbility in
most cases Of maintaining grass lands in a
productive condition, he finds the quantity
of land that is needed to support one COW,
far too great at its present value to permit
satisfactory profit to be realized from her
produce. Five acres of pasture and two of
meadow for a cows yearly subsistence is
more than he can afford. Where land is
worth $50 an acre the interest upon the cost
of seven acres alone will sweep away nearly
half the average income from cow. 1t is
very clear when we consider the average re-
turns from dairy COW that it does not, and
cannot, pay to keep her on pasture and hay
exclusively. If this is a fact we may as well
abandon all thought OF keeping land perma-
nently in grass and al effort to do so. Even
upon moist bottom lands natural to grass''
we are satisfied that it will not pay as we'll
to grow grass permanently as to drain those
lands and submit them TO regular rotation
OF cropping IN which hay and pasture, or
soling crops shall alternate with grains and
roots. If one COW can be kept upon every
seven acres upon a farm devoted to varied
crops under the best system of rotation-as
we know from ample experience can be done
with ease-it is then very clear that all the
crops raised in excess of what is needed TO
subsist the cows are so much gained. Ii this
is true, the farmer who mixes dairying with
grain growing is far better off than the ex-
clusvely dairy farmer. The past season has
helped to greatly enlarge the experience of
dairymen, and, as is usual, the new expert
ence has been paid for The past summer
has been very destructive to pastures and
meadows over large extent of country, aud
the income of thousands of dairymen who
have not practiced "selng" more or less has
considerably fallen off. What we have learned
this season has been very much against per-
manent grass and in favor of a mixed sys-
TEN. 1t has long been believed by some
farmers that pasturing is wasteful practice.
Many of these will now be certain of it.
But the heightened rest given to the land
by some seasons of pasturing is helpful and
valuable, and this fact only tends to strength
en- the position we have defended in these
columns, viz, that much more extended
BILE, and would be found profitable, and in
such heightened rotation daiIying falls nat
urally as one of the necessary parts of it,
N Y Times.