TIME TO CUT CLOVER. 57 



week, if you please, and take it in at your leisure. A man who 

 has a farm of the ordinary size, one hundred or one hundred 

 and fifty acres, if he begins his haying before the fourth of 

 July, will not get in his hay, with the amount of labor at his 

 command, any too soon. I believe we get in our hay in just 

 as good condition as the farmers do down here. I have seen 

 them getting in hay with snow on the ground, — probably for 

 convenience in getting it in on sleds. We are not quite so bad 

 as that, and I am glad to say that we are improving in many 

 respects. Our farmers are getting in their hay a great deal 

 earlier than formerly, they are getting it in better condition, 

 and our cattle are feeling the benefit of it. We in our section 

 are largely engaged in dairying — sending our milk to market, 

 making butter, and in every way using the products of the 

 cow. This question, therefore, is one of great importance to 

 us, because it is the hope of profit that actuates the farmer, and 

 when he finds that he can get a larger production of milk by 

 using the early-cut hay, he will be very apt to turn his mind to 

 these new improvements. Not many years ago, my friend, 

 Col. Waring, sent to me, and wanted me to make some exper- 

 iments in relation to feeding early-cut hay to my cows. I was 

 feeding a large number of thoroughbreds. At the same time, 

 he sent to another man on the Hudson River, who was feeding 

 late-cut hay. On comparing the results, he found that, with the 

 same number of stock, I was getting a larger production, using 

 only, one-fourth as much grain, and my cattle were in better 

 condition. My hay was cut the middle of July. My friend, 

 on the North River did not finish haying until the middle of 

 August. 



Dr. Loring. I think my friend has laid down a rule that is 

 a little hard upon the clover business. It is the fourth of July 

 all over the country, but the latitude is different, and the growth 

 of plants different in different sections. Clover matures faster 

 in Southern Connecticut than it does in New Hampshire ; than 

 it does with us. 



There is another thing. If you seed down a piece of land 

 just before the frosts come (although as Mr. Johnson has prop- 

 erly said, August is the best time to sow herdsgrass and red- 

 top), especially if it is heavy land, — I doubt, by the way, a 

 little, the propriety of seeding such land in the fall, — it would 



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