26 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



Digestibility and Time of Cutting. There is another 

 factor than yield to consider, especially if one is to feed, 

 the hay to one's own animals ; that is, palatability and di- 

 gestibility. Early-cut timothy is tender, well-flavored, 

 easily masticated and digested. Animals like early-cut 

 hay and eat it readily. Late-cut hay is tough, woody, 

 hard to chew and hard to digest. If one succeeds in get- 

 ting a great weight of hay cut with seed fully ripe one 

 has little if any more than so much straw. A great deal 

 of the protein that should be in the hay has gone into the 

 seed, and animals can not digest timothy seed. The 

 plants have developed a great deal of woody fiber and that 

 has locked up much nourishment that otherwise would 

 have been available. 



Green grasses are full of sap ; that sap is the best part 

 of the grass. Everyone knows the good that follows put- 

 ting animals out to graze tender, juicy grass. Grasses 

 cut with the sap in them, dried and made into hay, will 

 maintain animals nearly or quite as well as though they 

 were grazing it green. My father knew that well, and 

 by cutting his meadows early, he would . usually be 

 through haying by the time his neighbors had begun. He 

 often told me that early-cut grass would feed young cat- 

 tle as well as ripe grass and grain. His practice proved 

 his theory. He always wintered young steers on hay 

 alone and they grew well and came through in good or- 

 der, afterward grazing exceedingly well. It was not un- 

 usual for him to cut timothy before it flowered; oftener 

 he would cut it when in full bloom. He would always 

 have red clover mixed through his timothy meadows so 

 long as it would endure. 



