Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-08-31
Neglected Lands in Use for Pasturage.

1t is common practice on many
farms to improve the more inviting por
tions of the homestead, converting
these into tillage fields and meadows
| apparently condeming for use as pas
ture the remainder. This remainder
| many times, presents a sorry sight. I,
the farm is upon land formerly covered
| with timber, the pasture ground is likely
to be thinly set in dwarf blue grass
with patches here and there of white
clover, mullen, and possibly little
sorrel. Rotting logs and stumps are
scattered around. The stock, after
having hunted in vain to obtain their
fill, retreat to the shade, of which there
is liable to be a superabundance, made
up of worthless trees, which cucumber
the ground they stand upon. The
animals grow but little, are always
small and lean, and are never expected
by the owner to be otherwise; and un.
der this kind of management, drag out
life about on par with the cattle of
South America, having, individually,
about as much merit.
A farm provided with grazing ground
of the kind referred to should never be
made the home of improved stock. If
fer be made from good pasture to those
of the kind described, they will inevi-
tably shrink. 1t is not surer that water
will find its own level than that we'll
bred and meritorious stock will, in q
down towards the level of the scrub,
for upon soil that grows only poor grass
and weeds, the best of stock will become
CTR tod loo, L. L.
eral feeding during winter compensate
for the half year of such summer treat
ment as that referred to, for the reason
that the best part of the year in which
to secure growth and condition is fritz
tered away.
All neglected, cast-away lands, wheth-
er in timbered districts or otherwise
and the kind mentioned is equally COM
mon to prairie farms-should be re-
claimed, by being thoroughly broken
up, planted to suitable crop, and after
ward seeded down; if for pasture alone,
not to one kind of grass, but to two or
three. 1t is not often enough remem-
bered that it should be leading object,
in growing any grain crop, to pave the
way for grass. 1t is folly to expect good
pasture without some preliminary prep
oOII IOI Al any TdUp, DIS d
rule, no good yield can be had until the
land is titled in such manner as will
insure good growth.
Pastures should not consist of one
kind of grass only, because (D stock
prefer variety, going from one to the
other, thus keeping their appetites whet..
ted; (2) because the grasses having
different periods at which they mature,
one kind having passed its best stage
another comes to its best and takes its
place, and (3) because grasses vary in
the degree of standing wet and drought,
hence if one sort is injured, by vicissi-
tudes OF the weather, another may be to
an equal degree benefited. 1t should be
more the practice to stimulate pastures
with special manures. This is as neces-
sary thing to do as to feed a particu-
lar animal freely because it is falling off
In flesh Among the best stimulants to
tardy-growing grass is nitrate of soda;
and this may be used freely on pastures
without great outlay, and with prompt |
and beneficial results.-Nationf Lin
Stock Journal.