28 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



The Missouri Experiments. To test this thing, Prof. 

 Waters at Columbia fed steers on timothy hay alone and 

 gave them their choice of the several cuttings. These 

 were put in the rack so that the steers would eat as they 

 liked. In every instance, they began to eat the first-cut 

 grass, taking next that cut second and refusing to eat any 

 of the ripe cut hay till the earlier-cut was all consumed. 

 The instincts of animals are very safe guides when mat- 

 ters of nutrition are concerned. The investigations of 

 Prof. Waters are so interesting and the results secured 

 so valuable that I advise the reader to see THE BREEDER'S 

 GAZETTE of June 9. 1909 and June 16. 1909. I quote 

 his conclusions : "So far all the results have been in fa- 

 vor of the earlier cuttings. The yields were larger, the 

 hay was more completely digested, and was more pala- 

 table to the stock. In the matter of convenience of har- 

 vesting the balance tips heavily the other way. The 

 greener the grain is cut the longer time it takes to cure, 

 the more easily it is damaged by showers and heavy dews, 

 and the more readily it will sunburn." The fact is, how- 

 ever, if one is farming to feed one's animals one can well 

 afford to face those obstacles in the hope of getting the 

 larger nutrition from the land and of having the animals 

 in better thrift and flesh. 



Time of Cutting and the Health of the Plants. There 

 is another side to this question that of early or late har- 

 vesting. Fortunately, Waters has also made this clear. 

 It is the effect of the cutting at different times on the fu- 

 ture yield. It has long been noted that in the drier parts 

 of the timothy belt, the yield of subsequent crops was 

 injured by early cutting. This is not visually true in the 



