WHEN COMING INTO BLOSSOM. 53 



sure of this, that I had no hay of that description of which my 

 animals consumed so much, or which seemed to do them so 

 much good. 



Question. What in your opinion would that have been, if it 

 had not been pitched over ? 



Dr. Loring. I don't know what it would have been, but I 

 know I would not be so frightened again for any living thing. 

 Mr. Johnson says that his hay is good. I have no doubt of it ; 

 but old-fashioned hay, made in the sun, is good, spends well, 

 and goes a great ways. I do not say his does not. Perhaps 

 both rules are right ; one rule I know is ; that I am satisfied 

 of. 



Now, in regard to the grasses. I have tried all of them. 

 There are all sorts of grasses, but herdsgrass and redtop are 

 the grasses ; all the rest are only substitutes, in the long run, 

 for these. You may hunt the whole catalogue over, and you 

 will find nothing to equal them. Clover, Hungarian grass, etc., 

 may answer as substitutes, but the best hay, the richest in 

 nutritive qualities, that can possibly be raised on an acre of 

 ground in New England, is hay that is made from herdsgrass 

 or redtop, or the two combined, which is better yet. You may 

 put your working oxen, your dairy cows, your working horses, 

 or anything else, on to any other kind of grass, but there is 

 nothing, in my opinion, that will come up to those two, cut and 

 cured according to the rule suggested by Prof. Chadbourne, by 

 which mode all the nutritive qualities of the grass, the sugar, 

 starch and soluble salts, will be preserved, to meet the wants of 

 the animal. 



Mr. Johnson. I think the doctor, Prof. Chadbourne and 

 myself agree entirely. I am very happy to find that we do 

 agree, for I never disagreed from the doctor in my life, and I 

 hope I never shall. I certainly shall not, if he always behaves 

 as well as he has to-day. We all agree that the time to cut hay 

 is at the time when it is at the highest point of nutrition. 

 Now, I do not understand that Prof. Chadbourne lays it down 

 as a scientific principle here that that time is when the redtop 

 or herdsgrass is fully in blossom. I agree with the doctor that 

 these two grasses are the most valuable ones we have. I believe 

 that the time for cutting is just before these grasses are in full 

 blossom. 



