54 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



throwing as little unnutricious food as possible into the 

 stomach consistently with a proper distension of it. 



This fact also explains the value of old hay which has 

 been well cured and well kept. It is known that freshly 

 gathered nuts are not so oily as those which are old. All 

 seeds perfect their oil after being thoroughly ripened by 

 keeping. The seed of old hay will be richer in fatty matter, 

 then, than new. 



3. The most palatable hay for cattle is that which is cut 

 before it ripens its seed. If the farmer has enough grain to 

 feed with, he can afford to cut his grass early. Its want of 

 nutriment will be made up by feeding grain, and his stock 

 will relish their food better than if it had grown hard with 

 age before cutting. 



4. But for general purposes, grass should be cut when 

 just out of flower. This is a compromise between the two 

 extremes. It combines the two advantages of juiciness of 

 stem and richness of grain more nearly than any other. 

 The stem will be cut while yet in juice, and the seed will 

 continue to fill and ripen after it has been cut. This is 

 well known in respect to wheat, and the best farmers cut it 

 before it is dead ripe. 



The want of barns to store it, the want of markets in 

 which to sell it, the want of profit in raising it, and lastly, 

 the want of thrift in making it, has caused thousands of 

 tons of hay to be most wretchedly put up curing as it is 

 sarcastically called ; cured, probably, on the principle of 

 the following story : A physician in England went out with 

 the gamekeeper to hunt ; covey after covey was started, 

 into which the doctor fired with a strange want of pro 

 fessional skill, without killing anything. The gamekeeper 

 at length lost patience, and snatching the gun, said : 

 &quot; Let me take it, I ll doctor them.&quot; 

 &quot; What do you mean, sir, by doctoring them ?&quot; 

 &quot; Why, kill them, to be sure.&quot; 

 Thus, we think, grass is too often doctored. 



