364 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



Aug. 



best condition, and contains the greatest 

 amount of nutriment, and should be imme- 

 diately cut and cured. The leaves are reser- 

 voirs in which sugar and starch are accumu- 

 lated for the use of the stalk in forming the 

 seed — and when the seed vessels are formed, 

 the sugar and starch are rapidly drawn from 

 the leaf vessels to be converted into the sub- 

 stance of the seed. 



Whether the hay is to be fed to cows in milk 

 or horses at work, it is much better if cut early 

 than if cut late. Woody fibre affords but lit- 

 tle nutriment, and if our animals are to obtain 

 their living from it in the winter we had bet- 

 ter turn them into the woods and let them 

 browse, than to be at the expense of laying up 

 wood for them in our barns. 



Dr. Fisher said, "I cut my herdsgrass be- 

 tween the 13th of June and the 3d of July. I 

 cut it before it had shown a blossom, and I 

 should bo willing to put that hay before cattle, 

 by the side of any other hay, and if they did 

 not choose mine in preference to any other, I 

 should be very much mistaken." 



Then if the crop cut thus early is not as 

 heavy as it would be cut two or three weeks 

 later, you will get a second crop, not of rowen, 

 but of hay of good quality, dried grass, as 

 valuable in proportion to its weight, as the 

 first crop. What we want as food for cattle 

 and horses, is dried grass, not bushes, coarse 

 or fine. When seed stalks have formed on 

 grass, cattle will not eat them, if they can help 

 it. We find ihem cropping the short green 

 blades near the ground, and avoiding the full 

 grown woody stalks, and they would do so in 

 the winter if they could separate the blades 

 from the stalks in the hay. 



Says Dr. Fisher, "I have two horses now 

 which have been kept for some years upon six 

 quarts of meal, and pretty late cut hay. It 

 required that amount to keep them in condi- 

 tion. I now give them only two quarts of 

 meal (and have given them only that quantity 

 for the last year and a half) in combination 

 with hay that I cut early, and they are in bet- 

 ter condition than they were two, three or 

 four years ago. I consider them as good ar- 

 guments as I can produce. They certainly 

 thrive better on two quarts of meal and the 

 hay they get now, than they did formerly upon 

 six quarts of meal and late cut hay." 



Says Mr. Hyde, "The grass of Massachu- 



setts is probably cut a fortnight ealier than it 

 was ten years ago. Towards this result the 

 mowing machine has greatly contributed, as il 

 enables us to finish the hay harvest with great 

 dispatch. 



"The true principle of haying, we think, is 

 to secure the hay at a time when we can har- 

 vest the largest amount that shall be like grass 

 in its perfect state ; and this we can do when 

 the grass has attained its growth, and before 

 the starch, sugar and gluten of the plant have 

 gone to the formation of seed, or been con- 

 verted into woody fibre. The starch and other 

 nutritious compounds are on the increase as 

 long as the plant grows ; but with blossoming, 

 growth ceases, and now is the time with the 

 least labor to secure the greatest amount of 

 forage in its best condition." 



This is the true theory ; and when the prac- 

 tice shall be fully up to the theory, we think the 

 hay crop of New England will be worth at least 

 twenty-five per cent, more than it is now. 

 Another advantage, too, we think would re- 

 sult. The cows would yield a full flow of 

 milk with half the corn meal and oil meal 

 which they now require, and which, by their 

 unnatural stimulation, keep them in a feyerish 

 condition and produce frequent abortions, 

 unhealthy states of the milk vessels, and vari- 

 ous other forms of disease, which render them 

 short lived and greatly diminish the profits of 

 the dairy. Were the cows fed on well cured 

 grass they would require but little more grain 

 in winter than in summer, just enough to make 

 up for the difference in temperature ; they 

 would be more healthy, and of course their 

 milk would be more healthy. Much of it now 

 is fit for anything else rather than for human 

 food. In his lecture upon the dairy, Mr. 

 Willard of New York said, "If you have any 

 diseased cows, do not mix the milk of those 

 animals with the milk out of which you are go- 

 ing to make your butter and cheese, but throw 

 it to the pigs." 



Prof. Gamgee said. "Don't throw it to the 

 pigs." And yet, how much such milk do we 

 sive to the children ! 



ExpEiUMENTAi, Fakms. — The French Em- 

 peror has nine example farms in Gascony, 

 eight in Champagne, three in Cologne, one in 

 Limceusin and one in Italy. These twenty- 

 two farms pay him on an average four per 

 cent, on the capital invested. 



