The Portland daily press., 1892-01-02
MEADOWS, OLD AND NEW.

The Value of Old Meadows as Compared
with Those Newly Seeded.
Farmers are often at loss to decide
whether an old meadow or pasture
should be broken up and reseeded or
permitted to remain longer in its present
condition. Instances are known where
rich alluvial lands continuously pas
tured for long series of years seemed to
have improved rather than to have de-
generated. The yield of grass, of course,
will vary with the season. Under favor
able conditions of moisture the growth
will be early and rapid and the crop OF
heritage large. Where care has been
taken to keep out noxious weeds from
the beginning, such pastures do not APP
pear to have suffered from want of re-
seeding.
To practically test the question of the
value of old meadows as compared with
those newly seeded, experiments run
ming through three years were made by
Professor Beal, botanist, at the Michi-
gan station ON five and half acres of
rather low, stiff, clay land, which had
been continuously pastured for twenty
years or more. In 1888 portion of this
field was thoroughly tile drained and
plowed, and twelve plats of thirty feet
square each were sown with several
sorts of clovers and grasses, either pure
or mixed, for comparison. Twelve sep
arate square rods of the permanent
meadow and the same number of the
newly seeded portions were selected for
the test. From time to time as any of
these plats were in condition for cutting
the grass was moved, weighed at once,
then well dried and weighed again.
The results are given in tables too
lengthy to be reproduced here. The
grasses of the old pasture consisted al
most entirely of timothy, June grass
and red top. A mixture Of eight sorts
sown consisted of timothy, tall oat grass,
orchard grass, tall fescue, fowl meadow
grass, red clover, mammoth clover and
wild grass from the west. The first year
Of the trial the yield of the following
named grasses among those recently
sown was very light: Meadow foxtail,
June grass, fowl meadow grass and red
top, while the old pasture was already
established and ready to cut an average
yield the first year of the trial.
Some of the general conclusions found
in the Michigan bulletin are as follows;
Alsike clover, some parts of the orchard
grass, tall oat grass and perennial rye
grass have nearly run out, while red
clover may be expected to die the COM
ing winter. The average yield of the
natural sod was light when compared
with most plats recently seeded. One
of the striking points was the large yield
of the plats sown with mixture of
eight sorts. If these sorts are properly
selected such results of mixtures will al
most invariably follow.
Whether to keep arabic lands of the
farm in permanent pasture or meadow
in this state will depend on many cir
cumstances, among which may be men,
toned the following, viz, The risk of
having the grasses of the old sod injured
by insects, by the cold of winter or the
droughts Of summer, and the cost of seed
and labor in breaking up and reseeding
every two or three years. AS shown by
other experimenters, permanent grass
lands accumulate surplus of nitrogen,
which is just what is needed for most
other crops. The results would doubt
less be very different if repeated on other
kinds of soil