GRASS CROP. 117 



State, for without that we could do very little, if anything*. I 

 agree with the lecturer in regard to the importance of cutting hay 

 early. If I could cut it when I want to, I would always do so 

 when the herds-grass heads were not more than half way up. 

 Some say this is too early to cut grass because it shrinks so much. 

 But if you take two pairs of oxen, and feed one on hay cut early 

 and well cured, without any meal, and feed the other pair on hay 

 cut when the grass was in its " second blossom," with six quarts 

 of meal daily to each, at the expiration of three months the oxen 

 fed on the early cut hay, without meal, will be in better condition 

 than the others. I have in my mind a five acre lot that has been 

 mown for ten years. The owner was in the habit of cutting late, 

 as many of us have been. He thought he would try a new plan 

 upon that piece, and he commenced cutting early. He has pur- 

 sued that course ever since ; and he told me last season that he 

 had put very little manure on that land, but the crop had increased 

 every year since he- fii'st commenced cutting the grass early. It 

 was his opinion that he could take an old worn-out field and 

 inci'ease the yield every year, by simply mowing it early. It is 

 very important that we understand the facts in regard to this, for 

 the grass crop is our most valuable one, and if we can feed our 

 cattle well without giving meal, why should we not do it ? 



[Mr. Sweet of Oxford, in the Chair.] 



Mr. Putnam of Aroostook. I rise to endorse what frienii 

 Chamberlain said in regard to cutting our hay early. I have been 

 in the habit of cutting mine before the herds-grass headed out, 

 where I mow twice. It is generally lodged some. I mow it and 

 spread it in the fore part of the day, and about noon put the ted- 

 der on and stir it up, and then cock it up as soon as I can. I 

 cure it without the sun. I would as lief cure hay in cloudy 

 weather as in sunshine, if it did not rain. It wants to be cured, 

 not dried so that the leaves break off. When thus cured one ton 

 is worth as much as a ton and a half, at least, of that dried in the 

 sun. 



Such has been my practice for many years. I was brought up 

 in Massachusetts, where they hay early. I have known people to 

 finish haying there and then go to the St. John river, when it took 

 three weeks to get there, and then do the haying, because they 

 began to cut in the second blossom. I know old and woody hay 

 does veiy well for tavern keepers, because they give grain also, 

 and the horses don't eat much of such hay. But we who have 



