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Show IRRIGATION FOR A PASTURE In Order to Secure Good Stand for First Year Seed Bed Shou:j Be Carefully Prepared. We often have inquiry for the seeding seed-ing of a pasture for dairy cows. Alfalfa, Al-falfa, of course, is the most productive produc-tive single plant, but it is not always availabls. Common red clover will also produce a good crop, but it requires re-quires care in pasturing. A mixture composed of the following should give good results on our irrigated lands: Timothy, six pounds; brome grass, five pounds; meadow fescue, five pounds; tall oat grass, three pounds; alsike clover, three pounds; alfalfa, two pounds, making a total of twenty-four twenty-four pounds of seed to the acre and a little red top may be added for wet situations, says the Denver Field and Farm. The brome and the tall oat grasses are the quickest growers and will produce the bulk of the pasture the first season. The seed bed should be clean and well prepared and the seed sown early in the spring. Since a permanent pasture is expected to last for a number of years it is very necessary that a good stand be obtained ob-tained the first season. In order to secure this, care should be taken in the preparation of the seed bed, in the seed, and in the caring of pasture until it is well established. If the sowing is done in the fall the seed should be put upon land that has been summer fallowed. It is also a good plan when sowing In the s'pring to summer fallow the land for- one season sea-son previous to the seeding and in some cases It is a good practice to bury or plow under at least one crop in order to supply the land with humus hu-mus and plant food. The seed is usually usu-ally sown by hand, after it is thoroughly thorough-ly mixed. Care should be taken to secure an even distribution of the seed. In some cases it may be necessary neces-sary to sow the larger varieties oi , seeds first and then go over the land again with the smaller seeds. In nearly all cases the seeds can be covered cov-ered deep enough with a harrow and some folks finish with a corrugator. As a usual thing it is not considered good practice to graze a permanent pasture the first year. A better plan is to mow the crop off and leave the grass upon the land to act as a mulch. This also aids in keeping down the weeds. The closeness of grazing will depend upon the soil and climatic conditions. con-ditions. It should not be fed o too close in summer months when the weather is hot and dry, as the plants are injured by the tramping and the loss of moisture. On the dry, light, sandy soils close grazing should not be followed, and a permanent pasture pas-ture should never be grazed when the land is so wet that there is danger of injuring, the plants by tramping them into the soil. It is a good plan to feed different classes of animals on the same pasture. The taste of each animal ani-mal is different and therefore the pastures pas-tures may be grazed off more evenly. The different animals may be put upon the pasture at the same time or at different periods of the season. Another An-other mixture that should prove successful suc-cessful in our irrigated valleys consists con-sists of timothy, twelve pounds; alsike al-sike clover, three pounds; alfalfa, three pounds, and small white clover, two pounds, making a total of twenty pounds to the acre. This pasture is especially well suited to dairy cattle. The mixture of the grasses and legumes leg-umes prevents the animals from bloating. bloat-ing. It also furnishes succulent feed for the greater part of the season. The grass comes on quite early and continues con-tinues to grow until late fall. Orchard Or-chard grass and Colorado bluestem added to this mixture also increases the feeding value. For this mixture the seed bed is prepared and the seed planted in much the same way as for meadow. However, some people have had success by sowing the seed upon old pastures very early in the spring. The melting snows and spring rains will usually furnish sufficient cover f6r germination. Taking it all in all, however, the better the seed bed . is prepared the better the results will be. On the dry lands of the west the best grasses for maintaining a permanent perma-nent pasture are bromus inermis and western rye. Both of these will grow on nearly any kind of soil and of all the pasture grasses these two have the greatest drought-resistant powers. A mixture of ten pounds each should prove very successful .upon the dry lands, especially on the light, sandy soils. On the bench lands the following follow-ing mixture should give good results: Timothy, four pounds; bromus inermis, iner-mis, six pounds; western rye grass, four pounds, and alfalfa, found pounds, making a total of eighteen pounds the acre. Another good mixture, especially especial-ly In the winter wheat districts, is brome, seven pounds; meadow fescue, five pounds; tall oat grass, five pounds, and alfalfa, three pounds, a total of twenty pounds of seed to the acre. The pasture on dry land will not last so long as on irrigated land, but if the soil is well cared for it should last for quite a number of years. |