St. Tammany farmer., 1901-08-24
FARMER AND PLANTER.
PERMANENT PASTURES.
Revolving Question IN n. M,,a
Of Aany Farmers-Do
They Pays

u Aany Farmers-DO
They Pay.
IL has been a revolving question IN
INC minds of many farmers whether
" pays to fence q farm for the pur-
pose OF pasturing the entire farm in
helds. Whether long rotation is di-
rect species of scientific farming has
become a question Of debate and the
progressive farmer is fast settling it
cy taking out many of the inside
FENCES of his farm and using only
certain portions Of his farm in a per-
manent pasture.
1t occurred to the writer many
years ago that there was more money,
better crops, better system in farm
work by short rotation over less area
than spreading over the whole farm.
with this in view we began by burn
ing the bridges behind us; that is,
throwing say three fields into one and
working them in rotation and not cut
ting but one crop of clover, then COW
ering with manure and turning over
for corn or potatoes. This mode of
short rotation has made our soil WON
derfully fertile over what it was some
years ago and can be relied on to
respond literally when put to cultiva-
ton. We are safe in saying that most
OF tbs has come about by concen-
trating the manure. and often the
second growth upon these fields and
keeping our stock upon our permanent
pastures. The natural blue grasses
that come spontaneously upon our
soil here in eastern Ohio seem to in
crease in power to care for more
stock as age comes upon them, and
the cultivated fields magnify their
ability to respond to cultivation. The
soil upon the latter soils never be-
come trampled and solid by stock
running over them. We believe that
porosity of soil is of itself a means
of fertility if not fertility in reality.
We emphasize the fact that without
plenty of air circulating through the
pores Of the soil combined with mois-
ture there is little activity among the
dement's that create the forces for
plant food. By keeping stock away.
from these fields and confined within,
as we believe, their legitimate do
main, our area of production is ma
terially Influenced.
We feel at liberty to criticise the
practice of running stock over our
permanent pastures during the Win
ter months. We believe the practice
to be promiscuous one and losing
game to us. By the close of November
we aim to have all stock placed in the
barn or yard for that purpose, where
in all the grain and roughage is fed
and the residium collected to be
placed upon the cultivated land. This
practice has proven successful to the
extent that our crop of manures has
become one of our permanent rota-
tions and one we cultivate with as
much care and profit as those of the
field. The output is at least treble
over that made and hauled to the
fields twenty years ago.
where stock can get at it at their
own free will, makes the work of car
ing for goodly lot of stock much
less than ha ing to run over the farm
semi-daily in rain or snow and the ex-
tremes of winter weather. This stock
stays within its confines till the 25th
of April or the list of May while the
pastures gain headway. We aim to
have plenty of roughage to run us till
those dates or even later and think
it pays to keep stock away from pas
ture till it has vigor and quantity to
supply the animals about all they
need to keep them going. The fields
I see that have stock turned in upon
them early, seldom ever get ahead
and in consequence of such an error
only do half tfe work they are capa-
ble of doing it allowed a healthy
start in April. It may be possible that
others make more dollars in year
out of their farms per each 200 acres,
but we sincerely doubt the theory and
also feel assured that when those
farms come to measure up in fertile
value, our plan of rotation and con-
fining stock from the fields during the
winter months will aggregate more
future worth t]ian the more general
plan pursued by farmers. The theo-
ry is not a popular one and bat few
are able to corrective the profit OF not
having every blade that grows from
the soil eaten and turned into animal
flesh. We have seen SO much OF that
kind of farming in the past, where
farms have deprecated in fertile val
,,e and the owner usually not success
full financially, that we have confined
ourselves more closely each year to
the plan described, and believe 1t
pays an excellent premium over any
other method we might adopt. 1t
means that more available plant food
is stored and created each year and
that moisture is conserved for the
growing of better and heavier yield
upon the soil thus treated. 1t is the
endless chain Of q profound rotation
.ho+ stimulates the future powers OF