152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



much improved, aud would be eaten with nearly as much avidity 

 as common English hay, and furnish about as much nourishment. 

 By such a course all the refuse fodder is converted into good feed, 

 which is no small item when fodder is as scarce as at the present 

 time ; hay thirty dollars per ton ; enough to buy a ton of straw 

 and fifteen bushels of corn. It is generally conceded that fifteen 

 bushels of corn is worth as much as a ton of English hay — hence 

 the conclusion that a ton of straw and fifteen bushels of meal, 

 properly mixed, will furnish equally good and much more feed 

 than a ton .of hay. 



Another fault (and one for which there is no excuse) is, in not 

 cutting hay and grain including corn, early enough by ten days. 

 The crops are allowed to stand so long that the straw and stalks 

 become dry and woody, and almost worthless as fodder ; and the 

 grain, although it may measure rather more bushels, is worth 

 much less to feed to man or beast. Grain is good in proportion 

 as the straw is green and good. Farmers, however, generally 

 understand that late cut, ripe, ivoody hay will winter more stock 

 than if cut early, when green, juicy and good, but I will risk the 

 opinion that if they will feed the earty cut hay in no greater quantity 

 than to keep the cattle in just the same condition that they keep 

 them on late cut hay, (with barely the breath of life in them,) that 

 the early cut will winter the most stock. Certainly if fed liberally 

 with it they will grow and fatten, while with the late cut they 

 would become poor. They will not eat enough of such feed to 

 keep them in a growing condition — they can't do it. In the first 

 place they have not the appetite for it, and secondly they cannot 

 hold enough of such feed as would be necessary, and lastly, they 

 are not able to do the work of eating it. The difference in the 

 quality and price of flour that we find in the market is more 

 attributable to the time of harvesting and the treatment of the 

 wheat from which it is made, than to all other causes combined. 

 Wheat must be cut at the proper time, otherwise it is a failure, the 

 sam3 as with hay. I speak from experience in this, for I have 

 been in the habit of raising wheat and have learned what is neces- 

 sary to get good flour after the wheat grows, and I adopt the 

 same rule with oats and corn. Always cut corn and shook as soon 

 it is fairly turned yellow, and let it ripen off and dry in the shook ; 

 perhaps it don't shell off from the cob quite as easily as if riper, 

 but in every other respect it is much better, and on the whole a 

 great gain. 



