CULTIVATED MOWING-LANDS. 119 



assimilate one than the other. They may both be right ; but 

 I am going to stand by the cow in this matter. They are 

 both right ; and tlie variation in testimony is simply because 

 the cow, or other animal, can digest that food, a-nd get the 

 benefit of it in that condition, better than it can in a ripe 

 condition. 



Then, there is another point. You do not exhaust either 

 the soil or the plant so much by cutting it early as by 

 cutting it when it is full}' matured. The exhaustion of the 

 plant comes largely from the maturing of the seed. I do not 

 think there will be any dispute about that. If you allow 

 the crop to seed, you may perhaps get a little more in your 

 first crop ; but your second crop is lost, because you have 

 allowed the plant to become exhausted, so that it starts 

 feebly ; and after you get along later in the season, when we 

 are liable to have dry weather, you do not get so good a 

 second crop. 



There is still another thing about it. Timothy holds in 

 better when cut earl}^ than it does when allowed to ripen. 

 There is another great objection to cutting this hay late, 

 particularly with those who use the mowing-machine, 

 because they are inclined to cut down about as near the 

 ground as they can. They cut some of the Timothy so near 

 the ground, that, if it is a dry time, and followed by a few 

 days of dry weather, the little bulb at the root of the grass, 

 which Timothy has, is killed outright. I have seen large 

 pieces ruined simply by close cutting ; and the farmer has 

 simply saved an inch or two of wood at the bottom of the 

 plant, and ruined his grass by the economy. I have suffered 

 in that way, because my men set the mowing-machine too 

 close to the ground. I think it should be set so as to cut 

 the grass three inches high. That may be higher than some 

 of you would put it, but I think it ought to be set three 

 inches high. And in cutting rowen, it is very desirable, for 

 the benefit of mowing-lands, that it should be cut by the 

 10th of September. You want to leave time for the grass to 

 grow, to make some little covering for the ground before 

 winter, and you get better weather. As a role, it is better 

 to cut by that time than to allow it to grow longer. Now, 

 many farmers, particularly those who manage their farms 

 under the (.Id system (they used to do it wlien I was a 



