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

Inere is no way OF 1eeulnS uOmeSClc
animals through which minimum of
expense is so surely attained as by
grazing, for in this way all the cost of
planting, cultivating, hand-feeding, as
well us the risk of growing crops, is
saved, and at the same time the land in
use is being fertilzed without waste or
expense, while the animals are kept in
the most natural and best condition
for attaining 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 a 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
especially in the States of the upper
Mississpp 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 subject which
certainly iustifes a wide and careful
investigation, and it is the writer's de-
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
well informed as in that of grasses, not
alone in n technical knowledge. but in
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, us in Kentucky, South
ern Illinois and Southern Missouri, yet,
except on sandy soils. it is Il very valu-
able pasture grass throughout almost
this entire area; and leaving 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 necessities are easily seeded, yield
the best returns, and are best adapted
Tor 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 grain-grOwing involves
a process of active exhaustion, which
is intensified by continuous production
of the same crop. VIII CHI year 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 NJ properties
from the atmoS sphere and rain water.
which is insutfic ent 1t is easy to say
but the truth is the price of grain and
the cost of labor will not just fr the eX-
pence of a general system of ferteliz-
ing, for which the quantity of stable
manure possible to obtain is made
quate; bes DIES, our supremacy in pro-
ducing grain and provisions is due
largely 10 the fact that we can obtain
good crops without any such outlay
hence if we are to retain that supre-
macy some practal method must bI
adopted for perpCtUating the fertility OI
the SOL without additional expcnce.
If, however, the soil can be kept up tt
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 its natural fertility. Fortu
nately, however, the means for obviat-
ing the danger are aKhand and can be
utilized, not only without expense, bu
with direct profit in it's use, in addi-
ton to the benefits derived through in
creasing the grain producing capacity
of the land.
Experience has taught that owing tC
the natural qualities of the SOL and the
character of the climate, we can keer
the land in a moderately high produc
tive condition through an ordinary 70.
tation of crops, including pasturine
two out of each six to eight years, &C.
cording to the composition of the soil
for while the land is being pastured.
exhaustion ceases in large degree; il
has time for rest and is being cons tan t.
ly fertilized by animal droppings.
These facts are so we'll known in theil
general application that 1 doubt il
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
OF eight the aggregate annual produc-
tion of grain would be larger than al
present. thus saving one-fourth the cost
of cultivation, besides having the use OF
the pasture, which, if judicously man.
aged in connection with grain-feedng,
would probably give the largest net an
nual profit per acre.
The greatest advantage to be derived
by the grain crops through such ro
ration would not be so much in tho in