Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1890-08-13
Care of Meadows.

The hay-crop IS now practically all
harvested, and over the entire country
was unusually large and of good quality
The large yield is due in a great meas
ure to favorable wet weather in the
early part of the season, and even up
to the time when the grass put out it's
blossoms. Is there any good reason
why nearly as good crop should not be
grown in all seasons, except those in
which drouth dwarfs the growth in the
spring? Farmers are too apt to NOW
their meadows year after year, accept
ing whatever yield they get as the best
to be expected. The fact that grass,
like grain crops, needs fertile soil to
produce well is generally forgotten.
The corn and wheat are given all the
manure made on the farm, and all the
fertilizers purchased, if any. A heavy
crop of timothy hay takes as
much fertility from the soil as
a good crop of wheat. 1t
stands to reason, therefore, that the ap-
plication of manure to meadows, and
grass land generally will pay as we'll in
the long run as when applied to the
grain crops. Taking ali labor and ex-
pense into account the hay-crop pays
the farmer the best of any ordinary
farm crop. 1t is the main winter food
lOI Ills StOCk, duQ SollS lOF us uluCn III
the shape of animals and their products
as when sold directly from the farm,
provided ordinary common sense and
business principles are utilized in feed
ing them. Moving off heavy crops of
hay decreases the fertility of the mead
ows, and pasturing them in the fall still
further Injuries them. Every pound of
milk or meat made from such pasturing
carries off definite quantity Of the fer
tility of the soil, and yet farmers Won
der why their meadows "run out"
1t is not always possible to have a
good pile of manure ready to be hauled
out and applied to the meadows after
haying, but the practice of Western
New York farmer shows what may be
done in this matter Only four years ago
he came into possession of farm which
had been rented to a tenant on shares
for ten or dozen years. The average
yield of the thirty acres of meadow US
ually moved was about twenty tons Of
hay. The meadows were plowed, sowed
to oats, and seeded down again ais fast
as possible, and from $50 to $50 pounds
of fertilizer per acre were applied when
the grass seed was sown. No animals
were allowed to be pastured in the new
meadows after haying, but the after
math was allowed to rot on the ground
during the winter, serving as mulch
to the grass roots. Last year
fonly an ordinary hay SEASON. about
twenty-five tons of hay were sold out of
the field, and the barns were filed to
the top, weighing out about forty tons in
the winter. This year, of course, the
yield is still greater, but the improve
local notoriety. The main object has
been to use fertilizers judiciously on the
meadows and never allow them to be
pastured under any circumstances. Any
farmer can do the same, and, instead of
causing his meadows to run out, he will
be constantly improving his farm A
heavy sod, capable of producing two
tons of hay per acre, is the best prepa-
ration for crop of corn or potatoes.
Keep up the grass land, and the rest of
the farm will come up too.