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Show WRING FOR PASTURES (F S. Harris) During the period of the war all animal products are going to be l"2e For many months the newspaper news-paper ' dispatches from the warring P f F.irone have told of the countries ot Euiope nave shortage of meat, fat, and al Uiiuls o foods derived from live stock. Some very shoc king stories have been told of the means resorted to be Germany ,0 secure the animal fat necessary to maintain the country and prosecute the war The lesson we may get from this condition is that every kind of forage must be used with the utmost ut-most economy and every possible means must be devised -to increase the supply of stock feed. Pastures offer one of the best means of increasing animal production produc-tion The greater part of the pasture land is planted and left to produce what happens to grow. This is a tie. plorable condition since a pasture will yield so much more satisfactory results if given just a little care. A pasture left entirely uncared for soon develops a number of undesirable conditions, which can readily be improved im-proved by a small amount of work. A good pasture will be evenly covered cov-ered with a sod that is not readily injured in-jured by the tramping of animals. The grasses will be palatable, nutritious nutri-tious and made up of a mixture that supplies fresh feed throughout the season. Some grasses grow best dur. ing the early part of the summer; others are more vigorous later. Those having different growing periods should be so mixed that there will at all times be fresh feed. Some grasses are naturally more tender and palatable palat-able than others. These will be crop-ned crop-ned too close and gradually killed if the pasture is overstocked. To avoid this condition it is a good thing to rotate the grazing which makes it necessary to divide it into two or more fields. If this is done it is also possible to remove the animals from the field while it is being irrigated. Thistles and other undesirable weeds gradually get into pastures reducing the yield of grass and causing caus-ing considerable annoyance. These can usually be controlled by mowing the pasture one or two times during the season. The mowing also cuts any bunches of coarse grass left by the animals. A number of pastures havo recently been observed where not more than half the area was being be-ing grazed. The rest was grown up to coarse .unpalatable grass and weeds. The grass that was being eaten eat-en was cropped too close for its best growth. A mowing would have cor-. reefed the bad condition. j Bunches of grass are tainted by droppings from the animals and are not eaten. This gives the pasture a ragged appearance and results in con siderable1 waste of feed. Running over the pasture once in a while with a brush drag or harrow overcomes this difficulty. By caring for the pas. ture the same as any other crop tlie farmer may greatly increase his live stock products and thereby help the nation in its fight for the liberty of mankind. j |