116 STATE BOAED OF AGEICTJLTUKE. 



when the attention of the farming community shonld be more particularly called 

 to this very important and interesting branch of agriculture ? 



To resume, hay should never be cut when it is wet. Keep it nearly continu- 

 ously in motion from the time it is cut till it is snugly put into the cocks ; allow 

 it to sweat well before it is drawn to and mowed away in the barn. By this 

 process you Avill preserve in the greatest perfection all those nutritious elements 

 which make it so valuable as food for animals. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Loomis. — Is it desirable to cut two crops of hay from the same piece of 

 ground in one year? 



Mr. FeiTis. — I suppose you might cut two crops of clover but not of tim- 

 othy. I never cut two crops in one year from the same piece of ground, but 

 usually pasture it. 



Mr. Shepard. — Do you practice cocking your hay the first day? 



Mr. Ferris. — Always, for I think hay properly taken care of worth twice as 

 much as that which is exposed to the dew and weather. It is better to put it in 

 cocks the day it is cut, if you have to stir it up on the following day. 



Mr. Loomis. — What proportion of timothy would you advise? 



Mr. FexTis. — About two-thirds timothy and one-third clover. I have good 

 grass land. I tliink the same proportion would do well on a light sandy loam. 

 Perhaps about one-half timothy and one-half clover would be a better propor- 

 tion for a sandy soil. If you should soav all clover I don't think you would get 

 any more clover than if you mixed it half timothy. There are certain proper- 

 ties in the soil adapted to one kind of plants, and certain rpialities adapted to 

 other kinds. By sowing clover and timothy together I tliink the yield is mate- 

 rially increased. I consider clover worthless after the heads have turned and 

 the Juice has left the stalk. 



Mr. Loomis. — Do you practice putting hay in the barn before it is perfectly 

 cured ? 



Mr. Ferris. — One season I put it in rather damp and had to remove it from 

 one mow to another, and then I took it out and stacked it. 



S. E. Lewis. — Did you ever cut your timothy after the seed was ripe? 



Mr. Ferris. — Some years ago I got a i)atent office report, and that advised the 

 ciitting of timothy after it had become ripe. I took the advice, supposing the 

 writer knew more about it than I did, and I found it was not as good as bright 

 wheat straw. 



The closing essay of this Institute was read by Hon. A. 8. Dyckman of 

 Soutli Ilaven, on 



THIJsNING FRUIT. 



It is a pleasure to trace the divine prescience and wisdom in all that affects 

 our welfare here as well as hereafter. These may be seen, in a remarkable 

 instance, in the provision for reproduction of vegetable forms. All possible 

 accidents by fire, flood, storm, and all consiimption and waste enter into account, 

 and all consequent needs are met in the constitution of things. So do we often 

 observe a superabundance which may be regarded, casually, as an evil ; but in 

 which a deeper insight reveals the beneficent liand of the Great Father. To 

 particularize still further we find, which is our present pui'ijose, that our valua- 

 ble fruit-bearing tree? are prone to set a multiplicity of fruit buds — enough to 



