72 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



THE GRASS CROP. 



By Dana H. Morse, Hillside Farm, Randolph, Vt. 



Statistics reveal the fact that the average annual yield of the 

 hay crop of Vermont from 1S93 to 1897 inclusive was about 

 1,205,953 tons. It is also shown that during this same period 

 of time the average price of hay per ton was $10.47 mak- 

 ing the yearly crop worth the sum of $12,626,327, while the 

 combined value of the wheat, rye, barley, buckwheat, corn and 

 potato crops annually amounted to about $3,000,000. Hence 

 grass may yet be regarded as king among all other crops of the 

 earth, as well as the foundation of all agriculture. 



Further explanation of these statistics show that the yield 

 per acre of hay in Vermont was 1 3-10 ton, while some states 

 scored as high as 3^2 tons per acre, thus demonstrating the cap- 

 acity of the soil to produce hay when in proper condition. 

 Hence while much has been said and written upon the import- 

 ance of raising a heavier yield of hay per acre, a thing of necessity 

 when applied to Vermont, dependent as she is upon six months 

 of dry feed for her stock, it may be pardonable, in view of this 

 light average harvest per acre, to once again call the attention 

 of the farmers to this subject, with the hope of stimulating them 

 to renewed action along the line of raising more and a better 

 quality of hay. 



Dean Swift once said that " he who makes two blades of 

 grass grow where only one grew before is a great public benef- 

 actor. " And yet, of all sorts of vegetation, the grasses seem to 

 be the most neglected ; neither the farmer nor the grazer seem 

 to distinguish the annual from the perennial, the hardy from 

 the tender, the profitable from the unprofitable, nor the succul- 

 ent and nutritive from the dry and juiceless. The study of 

 grasses alone would be of great consequence to a northerly grass 

 growing and grazing state. 



To discuss hay or grass culture in detail would require more 

 talent if not more time than is at my command, covering as it 

 does the field from the tiny seed to the hay mow. But let me 

 here say that in speaking upon this important topic, I do not 

 expect to advance ideas altogether new or unheard of or pre- 

 scribe methods, or lay out roads leading directly to the city of 



