110 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the season, but we do not mow so late. The second crop is 

 mowed often as early as September. 



Mr. Nathan Edson of Barnstable. I think every gentle- 

 man should use his own judgment. I will take an acre of 

 ground that will mow three tons the first time and I will go 

 on it and mow a second time and get perhaps half as much. 

 The grass will naturally come up and the field be covered 

 with a heavy third crop. I think it is good policy to pasture 

 that down partially ; because, if you don't, it is going to in- 

 terfere with your mowing machine next year. I think the 

 dead grass smothers out the next crop to a great extent. I 

 think it would be better to pasture such a mowing lot. 



]\Ir. Hadwen. I agree with the essayist, that if you cut 

 a good first crop earl}^ in the season you get hay that will 

 make good milk. Then you have an opportunity to cut off 

 a second crop, if your land is rich, and you get a good crop 

 of rowen. But every judicious farmer will cut that crop of 

 rowen early in the season. Then, if the land is in good con- 

 dition, there comes up an after-growth which should by all 

 means remain, because the roots of the grasses derive some 

 nourishment from the tops, if they have an opportunity, and 

 if you destroy that opportunit}^, either by cutting it a third 

 time or by pasturing it close, you impoverish the roots of 

 your grasses to a very great extent. Those are the reasons 

 w^hy good farmers should be very careful about taking off or 

 leaving the grass short in the late autumn. We all know 

 that frequent mowing of a lawn has a disastrous eflect upon 

 the sod and the grass roots. It is now conceded that to keep 

 a good lawn, you must let the after-growth come up to nour- 

 ish and protect the roots. 



Mr. Elbiiidge Cushman. I should regret very much to 

 have this Board pronounce agcinst raising corn for the pro- 

 duction of milk. Living as I do upon a farm, the soil oi 

 which is mostly of a light nature, I should be unal)le — and 

 I speak after twenty years' experience in the business — I 

 should be unable to make milk for the Boston market, and 

 sell it at present prices, were it not for the corn land ; and 

 when gentlemen say to me that a pail of milk cannot be made 

 with a bundle of corn-fodder, or fodder corn, either, I can- 

 not believe that they have given the matter the attention that 



