The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1896-08-29
49, iliitt
alIe,Pis glI L19R =
PASTURES AND MEADOWS.

Valuable Suggestions by the Direc-
tor of Cornell Station.
| a pasture or a meadow should be
made as we make a good road once
for all, and never. but once. After that
it wants watching and mending and
there is no difficulty in keeping it in
good condition if we only work in sym
pathy with Natures methods and do
not attempt to go contrary to her law.
| He who plants contrary to the law of
| nature pays the penalty. To get a
good pasture or meadow it is usually
q good rule to summer fallow the land.
There are vast stores Of plant food in
all soil. a leading object of all who
| farm should be to set free that plant
food and utilize it. The Office of the
farmer is to take out of the soil and
put in circulation the plant food and
keep it rotating from soil to animal
and from animal to SOIL
Do not SOW mixed grasses. There
are certain kinds Of grasses that will
stand our climate. The grass that
stands at the head of American farm
| verSal grass-tim Othy. The places
|
ception. Then comes the tall meadow
fescue-a grass that we have neglect
ed very much. Then we have the red
top for low lands; and in some places
we have the blue grass, although in
other places the blue grass is not good.
Sometimes it grows two or three inches
high in the spring Of the year and then
goes "on a strike" for the remainder Of
the season. On our moist meadow
lands, where it is naturally adapted, it
makes very nice pasture. The COM
mon Kentucky blue grass, the Poa pra-
tense, is desirable. The little narrow
ribbed plant, Poa compressa, is wholly
useless. Determine how much Of each
| you want and mix them as you want
them, according to the kind Of land
you have and according to the man
dates Of experience
Grasses are at all times hungry for
nitrogen. They want it and they want
It increasingly. It is their life blood
and yet they cannot produce it. AS
soon as they exhause what little nitro
gen is free in the soil then they are in
q condition Of starvation for nitrogen
You should watch that condition and
endeavor to farm according to the laws
which nature has laid down on that
subject. There are great many plants
that are nitrogen producers. They do
not thank you for nitrogen; just give
them little to start with and they 20
on themselves and take nitrogen from
| the atmosphere. Four-ffths of the air
| Is nitrogen and an organism that can
| not get it through the roots takes it
from the air. 1t is foolish to attempt
| to raise grasses without nitrogen pro-
| ducers, clovers, the common red clover
and the alsike. For pastures the COM
| mon red clover is better than the alsike
because it is deep rooted There are
! many reasons why a deep-rooted plant
| is desirable. The air should be allow
ed to circulate down to the roots so
that nitrogen can be made available.
1t cannot be made available unless it
can be taken down. On pastures we
want from three to five times as many
plants per square foot or per acre as
on permanent meadow. Most Of the
permanent meadows have too manv
plants; most Of the pastures too few.
Pasture grasses should cover the whole
ground.-Director I. P. Roberts, Cornell
| IN. " Experiment Station.