no BOAED OF AGEICULTURE. 



the season, but we do not mow so late. The second crop is 

 mowed often as early as September. 



Mr. Nathan Edson of Barnstable. I think every gentle- 

 man should use his own judgment. I will take an acre of 

 ground that will mow three tons the first time and I will go 

 on it and mow a second time and get perhaps half as much. 

 The grass will naturally come up and the field be covered 

 with a heavy third crop. I think it is good policy to pasture 

 that down partially ; because, if you don't, it is going to in- 

 terfere with your mowing machine next j^ear. I think the 

 dead grass smothers out the next crop to a great extent. I 

 think it would be better to pasture such a mowing lot. 



Mr. IIadwen. I agree with the essayist, that if you cut 

 a good first crop early in the season you get hay that will 

 make good milk. Then you have an opportunity to cut off 

 a second crop, if your land is rich, and you get a good crop 

 of rowen. But every judicious farmer will cut that crop of 

 rowen early in the season. Then, if the land is in good con- 

 dition, there comes up an after-growth which should by all 

 means remain, because the roots of the grasses derive some 

 nourishment from the tops, if they have an opportunity, and 

 if you destroy that opportunity'', either by cutting it a third 

 time or by pasturing it close, you impoverish the roots of 

 your grasses to a very great extent. Those are the reasons 

 why good farmers should be very careful about taking off or 

 leavino; the o^rass short in the late autumn. We all know 

 that frequent mowing of a lawn has a disastrous effect upon 

 the sod and the grass roots. It is now conceded that to keep 

 a good lawn, you nuist let the after-growth come up to nour- 

 ish and protect the roots. 



Mr. Elbridge Cushman. I should regret very much to 

 have this Board pronounce agrinst raising corn for the pro- 

 duction of milk. Living as I do upon a farm, the soil oi 

 which is mostly of a light nature, I should be unable — and 

 I speak after twenty years' experience in the business — I 

 should be unable to make milk for the Boston market, and 

 sell it at present prices, were it not for the corn land ; and 

 when gentlemen say to me that a pail of milk cannot be made 

 with a bundle of corn-fodder, or fodder corn, either, I can- 

 not believe that tiiey have given the matter the attention that 



