Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1881-07-28
4arm aaS 5ousa!ja!S.
Improving Pastures.


VIVA: shall BE- done to keen s.i IL, frr,..!-
I, and produc,i,euc,, of oar pasture, j, "a
question that = TRYING and taxing the men
Ia powers Of many thousand, of New Eag-
land farmers al the present time. Fifty
Years ago tie pastures ou most Il u4s farm,
were thu masn>tay for The maintenance and
growth Of stock. and for 'h. production O..
beef, aad What mix. butter. and cheese the
limited market Al TIA; time demanded. The
object sn w.G;erng cattle WAS e.lam o'ac.
than to kce? them through "a. another sum
mer, Just j. cheap.1 a possible. II clti.,
came oat At me end Of the winter So poor
and weak they could hardly stand atoms j,
"a> not cau>.derr! very SERIOUS matter.
for run Of a few week. IA the !4lur.au;
PASTURE which were the rule rather than
the exception IN those days. 5ro4ch, the an
ima4> up again into fine condition. June
VS. then the grea: butter month u the YEAR,
a most Of the butter sold VA made before
the hot weather Of july and August cam"
On. Then the cheese press va, brushed up
and ioF q few weeks. bushes, MAS L,,4, ~
the darn rooms
When III, cool September and October
DAYS arrived. and the COW, were turned al.
the moving held. the farmers v,c, took
that time TO lay down supply Of butter for
the family stores. sufficient 10 las, through
the long winter. and unti! butter could be
made again from June feed. Ninety COW,
II every hundred came n IN April. and il vas
considered misfortune that the other ten
came al any other season. MAY MAS the
great veal month many families both in the
country and IN the large towns, living upon
II almost exclusively a. their animal food
Tor several weeks AZ that season Bur nov
with an increased demand FOR the darn pro-
ducts anu more uniform market through
the entire year for milk and for fresh butter.
We ind the dairy interest very greatly in
creased, 50 that instead Of few weeks Of
over supply Of darn products, followed by
long season Of quiet and inactivity. there j.,
now a demand which affords thousand, Of
dairy farmers q steady, if not profitable
market at all times With this change in
the public demand has come a change in the
requirements al the dairy farm.
As milk must be furnished now in ne,rf,
uniform quantities. the Who'll. year -bron,b
and as individual COW, cannot give the sam,
amount at all times. il becomes Dec..,ar,
for milk farmer. 10 keen mare than ON. -,
Of cows. and to have them come in milk a,
various time. other than in sn,;,., ss f,r
merly- An increase Of stock and better
feeding means better farming generally, and
We find that the dairy farmers Of to-day are
better farmers then we're their father, and
grandfathers. Our ancestors fed their cat
tie very largely upon the spontaneous growth
OF the soil, and with the least possible out
lay Of manual labor. We find the soil is now
exhausted and that it viii no longer pro
duoe crops as formerly. The cultivated
fields which receive dressings Of stable ma
nure, and the river valleys which are annu-
ally oyerhowed, still Weld fair returns but
the old hill pastures which have been
cropped for three generations without ma
nur!ng or culture, have become about used
up, and many thousands of acres have been
abandoned 10 forest growth. In many
cases this Is the best plan that can be adopt
ed Many Of these rough, rocky pastures
should never have been cleared Of the ORG
inal growth and the sooner they are again
covered by trees the better for both the
land and the owners