Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-05-02
RURAL TOPICS.
A Few Practical Suggestions on
Grass Culture.
Raising of Colts for Market Ought to Be
One of the Sources of Farm Profits.
Grass Culture.

s. ~
planting, cultivating, hand-feeding, as
we'll as the risk of growing crops, is
saved, and at the same time the land in
use is being fertiized without waste or
expense, while the animals are kept in
the most natural and best condition
for attaining a healthy development,
writes L. B. Sidney in The Practical
Farmer. Throughout Great Britain,
where the value of land is so great
that its most profitable use is matter
of constant study and investigation, it
is the rule among stock -growers-which
nearly all the farmers are-tO feed by
grazing as far as possible and to cult
vate no land in grain until ample pro-
visions are made for all the grazing
land that can be used. In Holland, al-
so, where labor is very cheap, pastures
are an important feature of the cOun-
try. In the United States, however, and
espec ally in the States of the upper
NJ ssissippi and Ohio R yer Valleys. the
reverse is the rule, very little land be-
ing devoted to pasture which can be
cultivated in grain, whether at a pro-
fit or loss. This is Il subject which
certainly iustities a wide and careful
investigation, and it is the writer's d e.
sire, hoping to do some good by stating
some of the results of his own observa-
ton and experience. to induce others
who are better qualified to follow in
the same Inc. for there is no one
branch of farming, as carried on in the
West. in which so few appear to be
we'll informed as in that of grasses, not
alone in technical knowledge. but in
a knowledge of value of the different
varieties, the best modes of seeding.
and most profitable ways in which they
may be used.
The climate and soil of Ohio, Indiana,
Kentucky, Illinois. Missouri. Eastern
Kansas and Nebraska, the greater part
of Iowa and parts of Wisconsin and
Michigan, are well adapted to growing
timothy. orchard grass and clover, and
are so similar in the more essential
characteristics that general rules in this
respect are with simple notifications
found appl cable TO the whole district;
and while Kentucky blue grass has its
greatest value on suitable limestone
soils where the climate IS favorable for
winter pasture, rs in Kentucky. South
ern Illinois and Southern Missouri, vet,
except on sandy soils, it is II very vaIu-
able pasture grass throughout almost
this entire area; and lcav no out the
great VARIETY Of other grasses, more or
less valuable for hay or grazing. clover
and the three named var cites cover all
the nGcGss ties. are easily seeded, Weld
the best returns, and are best adapted
for general uses.
To grow large crops land must be fer
tile; even the best land we have cannot
be continuously cropped in grain without
deterioration, for Graln-grOwing involves
a process of activ' exhaustion, which
is intensified by continuous production
of the same crop. VIII ch , ear after year
consumes the same constituents. and if
all is taken from the soil and nothing
returned its chief reliance for power to
produce must be in the absorption of
ammonia and other fertile ne properties
from the atmosphere and rain water.
which is inSulli2 ent. 1t is easy to say
that farmers should manure their land
but the truth is, the price of grain and
the cost of labor Will not just fv the eX-
pence of a general system of ferteljz-
ing, for which the quantity of stable
manure possible to obtain is made
quate; bcs DIES, our supremacy in pro-
ducing grain and Drovis .OnS is due
largely TO the fact that we can OBJ ain
good crops without any such outlay;
hence, if we are to retain that SuDre-
macy some practal method mast be
adopted for Derpctuating the fertility OF
the sol without additional expCNcc.
If, however, the soil can be kept up to
its original fertility without increased
cost, there need be no fear, but there
is nothing more certain than that the
soil in these States is being rapidly
robbed of It's natural fertility. Fortu-
nately, however, the means for obvat-
ing the danger are at hand and can be
utilized, not only without expense, but
with direct profit in its use, in addi-
ton to the benefits derived through in
creasing the grain-producing capacity
of the land.
Experience has taught that owing to
the natural qualities of the soil and the
character of the climate, we can keep
the land in moderately high produc-
tive condition through an ordinary TO-
tation of crops, including pasturing
two out OF each six TO eight years, ac-
cording to the composition of the soil;
for while the land is being pastured.
exhaustion ceases in large degree; it
has time for rest and is being constant
ly fertilized by animal droppinps.
These facts are so we'll known in their
general application that 1 doubt if
there is one in ten of the most success
full Western farmers but what would
say that if all the land in these States
now cultivated in grain was well seeded
and pastured two Years out of each six
or eight, the aggregate annual produc-
ton Of grain would be larger than at
present, thus saving one-f fourth the cost
of cultivation, besides having the use OF
the pasture, which, if judiciOuslv man.
aged in connection with grain feeding,
would probably give the largest net an.
nual profit per acre.
The greatest advantage to be derived
by the grain crops through such 70
tation would not be so much in the in
creased yield in good seasons as i
would be in the bad ones, when OWN,
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