Vermont Agrtctjlturai. Report. 67 



usually keep the pastures green. The hot mid-summer weather, 

 so common with us, favors the proper curing of the forage into 

 hay. In addition to the favorable climate, most of our soils are 

 well suited to grass culture, as they contain considerable potash,, 

 a fertilizing ingredient much needed by grasses and clovers. 

 There are portions of New England too where limestone abounds 

 and this constituent in the soil is also favorable to the growth of 

 grasses and especially of clovers. 



There is probably no part of New England better adapted to 

 the growth of grass and clover than Vermont. This is shown 

 by the high rank taken by her dairy products, both at some of 

 our great expositions and in the open market. On the west side 

 of the state, where the country is more level and large fields 

 can be made, the. growth of hay as a money crop may be made 

 a profitable branch of agriculture. On many farms where good 

 markets are near at hand, the coarse grades of hay such as 

 timothy, can be sold to better profit than they can be fed on 

 the farm. Grass and hay are so generally handled by machinery 

 that they can be grown and harvested more cheaply than most 

 of the cultivated crops. The cost of production for hay is less 

 per acre than for corn, because the plowing, harrowing, seeding, 

 etc., for hay does not occur oftener than once in four to six years, 

 while for corn it is an annual operation. The cost of growing 

 and harvesting hay need not exceed seven dollars per ton. Dur- 

 ing a period of five years the writer has kept an account of the 

 cost of producing hay on two large farms and has found it to 

 vary between $5.00 and $7.00 per ton, of barn cured hay. In 

 most of our cities and larger towns there is a strong demand for 

 good horse hay, and farmers can well aflford to sell their better 

 grades of timothy hay and feed the finer hays and those with a 

 considerable admixture of clover. These finer hays and the 

 clovers have a higher feeding value for dairy stock than timothy, 

 while the latter is much prized by horse feeders. 



In these times of close competition in dairying, it is important 

 that the farmer should grow as much as possible of the feeds 

 used by his stock. Nearly all of the dairy crops, possible to be 

 grown in New England, belong to two great groups of plants, 

 the grass family and the clover family. The former includes all 

 of the meadow and pasture grasses and in addition the common 

 cereals, such as corn, wheat, oats, and rye, while the latter in- 

 cludes all of the clovers together with alfalfa, vetch, peas, soy 

 beans, etc. 



In general, the plants of the clover family have a higher 

 feeding value than those of the grass family. Grasses are rich 

 in woody fibre and starchy products, but are deficient in nitro- 

 geneous matter or protein while the clovers contain much larger 



