Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-05-03


mental way in Addison county.
How to Have Permanent Pastures.
We want in a meadow those varities of
grasses that will grow, and which will
arrive at their greatest development
and greatest value for feeding pur
poses at about the same time. You must
have for your meadow those varieties of
grass, if you have more than one variety,
that reach their greatest development at
about the same time. 1t is found in prac-
tice that the growth and development of
the average plant in timothy and clover,
when grown together, approximate more
nearly to this condition than do most
other varieties. Clover appears to be
earlier in its development than timothy,
but the fact is that clover wants to arrive
at pretty good state of forwardness be-
fore it has attained its greatest value,
while timothy has attained its greatest
value long before the ripening of the
seed. SO these two go together very
tremendously.
Now, what do we want in pasture
You want Numerically opposite state
of things to meadow. You do not
want varieties of grass that will come on
together, and reach their greatest devel-
opment at one time. If you haye your
pasture seeded with those varieties you
will have good grass for awhile, and
during all the rest of the season you will
have no growth. What you require in
pasture are varieties of grasses that
reach their development at different
times In the season. Begin with those
which grow and develop at the earliest
possible period in the spring, and follow
ed by others that reach their growth and
development in the summer, and others
that make their greatest growth in the
fall. AS is usually the case those that
make their greatest growth in the spring
will make another in the fall, so you will
have through the season fresh, new,
luxuriant growth of pasture grasses.
The first thing to do with these hill
sides that have become, under the old
system, perfectly valueless, is to get
them into condition so that they can
grow grasses for a permanent pasture.
Many of these hill-sldes are so located,
and they are so rocky and so stony that
wv SouhOt pIoW tiltul III lut way we
plow land for crops, and restore fertility
to them as we can to many other lands
better situated. But there are many of
them where this can be done. On the
average hillside of western Connecticut
and eastern New York, | have found.
and expect it will be found so in gen
eral, that the best preparation of the soil
Tor this permanent pasture is by, or
through, the old, old, system called the
"summer fallOw."
When you give her an opportunity to
DO her work, when you pillow the ground,
break 1t up and let the air percolate
through it, nature will promptly begin
her work and instead of its beinga sum
mer's rest it is summer of ceaseless
activity, for chemical changes are going
on, and the inorganic matter of the soil
Is being developed so that it can be used
Tor plant food. That is what the sum-
mer fallow is. II is the scientific meet.
ing of requirements, and it is one of the
most scientific things you can apply to
the practice of agriculture, although YOU
allow nature to do the scientific work
instead of the labor upon which we so
prided ourselves in recent times.
Where the season Is open and the frost
comes out in February or March to the
depth OF live inches or so, even though
the frost may be i'm the ground one or
two feet below that, have put myplows
on and worked the land with the least
expenditure of power and broken it up
to depth of from three to six inches.
III you do that on clayey soil the sun will
dry it and you Will have sundried brick
OF every color, but on loamy soil that is
the cheapest blowing that can be done.
The greatest implement for doing this
work is the spring-tooth harrow, and the
harrow is the implement for the summer
fallow. On these rough and rocky hill
sides, stony and tough, blowing is very
expensive oftentlmes, but the spring
TOOK harrow can be sent over this ground
very frequently through the season. By
september the soil is in the best posi-
BILE condition to receive the seed. IL you
can at that time give it a dressing of
well-rotted manure or commercial fertil
izer If you please, containing especially
potash phosphate. Then SOW on grass
seed with no grain crop.
III you are after grass, go for It., and
not after something else. If you SOW
your grass seed in the spring, and your
soil has plant food enough In it to make
avigorous growth, you will have a crop
OF weeds grown with the grass during
the summer. Sow your grass seed early
in September so 1t will get hold enough
to stand the winter, and the next spring
when it comes on there is no room for
weeds.