122 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



it. Such bay may he best for a cit}^ consumer, where he cuts, 

 and, perhaps, steams it, to make it tender, but I tliiuk not for the 

 farmer. I have noticed that animals are mach more fond of hay 

 cut at least before all the heads are in blossom. I have noticed 

 that if after feeding such hay you change to timothy cut after the 

 seed is ripe, they will look at the feeder, as much as to say, I 

 want something better. And then again you will find the mice 

 will burrow in such hay, and you will find it full of chafi" and 

 chankings. A man of my acquaintance cuts his timothy mostly 

 before in blossom, and always finishes before it is out of blossom, 

 and it is astonishing to see how much stock the bulk of his hay 

 will keep, the hay looks almost like green grass, his sheep and 

 cattle fat on it, and so far from the sod deteriorating it is improv- 

 ing every year, and he winters more stock on the same number of 

 acres than any farmer I am acquainted with. His crop of rowen 

 is almost as good as the first crop." 



Mr. Alfred Young, Gustavus, Trumbull Co., Ohio : " My father 

 cut timothy when in full bloom, and I know that he fatted cattle 

 on that kind of hay, without grain, or other feed. Also one of 

 the best dairymen in this township says that cows will give much 

 more milk fed on early mown hay than late. I have always 

 believed that ripe timothy was not much better than straw. It is 

 what I call grass-straw, being woody and fibrous, but with little 

 nutriment." 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — Thus we see that farmers as well as doc- 

 tors disagree. Who shall say which is right ? 



Horse-Hoeing. 

 Mr. Solon Robinson. — Mr. Mechi, the celebrated English im- 

 prover, lays down this excellent axiom: "Never employ a man 

 where you can use a horse, and never a horse where you can work 

 a steam-engine." The reasons are obvious: -a man costs as much 

 daily as a horse, while the latter has six times the power; a steam- 

 engine beats the horse in like proportion ; therefore, with Gar- 

 rett's horse-hoe, which takes a width of seven to eight feet, a pair 

 of .horses and one man will clean and cultivate from eight to 

 twelve acres a day. With two pair of horses my man has occa- 

 sionally clean horse-hoed from twenty to twenty-two acres of 

 wheat or beans in a long day. Our beans are harrowed well with 

 iron harrows, when they are one inch out of the ground, and 

 receive in addition two ol' three horse-hoeings and two hand-hoe. 



