34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



with those grains mixed, l)ut am so well pleased with the results 

 thus far, that I shall continue the experiment further. Mr. A. W. 

 Putnam of Danvers, Mass., and others in the vicinity, have had a 

 larger experience, and write me highly favorable reports of their 

 success. The sowing of the two together, ma}' continue at intervals 

 of a week or ten da^s, from early in July to the middle or last of 

 September, and the crop will afford cuttings till after the ground 

 freezes. M3' last cutting this year was made the first week in 

 November, the late frost having injured it very slightly. One 

 advantage of growing these grains together is that a full crop of rN'e 

 may be expected the following spring and without the expense 

 of the second plowing and seeding. It is like sowing grass seed 

 with a grain crop, the gx-ain to be cut this 3'ear, and the grass next. 



The question may be asked, which of these several forage crops 

 named is, on the whole, the best ? I should answer, that each is 

 best in its appropriate place and season. I grow them all, and can 

 at present dispense with none. When the growing of grain crops 

 specially for fodder Avas first introduced, some farmers felt that it 

 was wicked, claiming that it was interfering with nature, to cut 

 down a field of rye or oats just as it was coming into bloom. Well, 

 it may require a little courage to strike a scythe into the first rj^e 

 field in the spring before it is moi'e than half grown. 



Some of us possibly, rnay estimate how many gallons of good 

 whiskey the crop would have made, if allowed to stand for seed. 

 But seriously, wh}' is it less natural to grow these gi-ains and cut 

 them for fodder, when they are in the very best condition for that 

 use, than to cut our common English grasses when in bloom, instead 

 of letting them stand to ripen their seed? 



This talk about certain methods and customs being contraiy to 

 nature, is often verv weak talk. Almost everything we eat, drink 

 or wear, is in some sense, the result of methods that are more or 

 less contrary to nature. Our butter and cheese, the flesh of domes- 

 ticated animals, eggs, veal and all cultivated fruits, are more or less 

 artificial products. I contend that a man or a nation of men are 

 living up to the highest ideal of conformity to nature when all the 

 good things found on this beautiful earth of ours are made to serve 

 man's highest and purest desires. The time may come when popu- 

 lation will be so dense in this country, that it will be unprofitable to 

 keep cattle at all, and man will use food direct from nature at first 

 hands ; when it will not, as now, be considered good economy to 



