?6 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



THE BEST TIME FOR CUTTING THE VAEIOUS 

 KINDS OF GRAIN. 



TnE cereals, togetlicr witli other vegetable mat- 

 ter, are composed of organic and inorganic elements. 

 Of the latter, it is not now necessary to speak. — 

 The organic matter is divided into nitrogenous and 

 iion-nitrogenons substances. Gluten, gelatine, fibrin, 

 albumen, casein and legnmen, are the principal com- 

 pounds in which nitrogen or azote are found. Sugar, 

 gum, starch, mucilage, woody fibre, &c., are the 

 jion-azote princii)les. The azote ])rinciples form 

 the muscular sul)stance of the animal body, and 

 the power of a plant to sustain animal life is just 

 jn proportion, to the amount of these principles 

 Avhich it contains. Tlie non-nitrogenous principles 

 form the fat and help to keep up the heat of the 

 animal body. These various principles are all onlv 

 diti'erent combinations of the gasses, carbon, oxy- 

 gen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, which the plant ob- 

 tauis from the earth, water, and air, and are elabor- 

 ated by the growing plant until it linally forms the 

 seed or grain. Therefore, as the whole organic ])art 

 of the plant is formed of so few principles, and as 

 it is evident tlsat there are constant changes taking 

 place in it wldle growing, the question is, what is 

 tlie proper time to cut short those changes, in order 

 for the husbandman to reaj) the greatest profit from 

 liis labors? In other words, at what time does the 

 plant contain the most gluten, albumen, fibrin, itc, 

 and least woody fibre, iSrc, and so of course contain 

 the greatest proportion of life-sustaining matter. 



Now, it is found that plants form sugar, woody- 

 fibre, &e., very rapidly to\vards the last stages of 

 their growth, and the opinion is held by many of 

 our best farmers that wheat, in particular, contains 

 less albumen, &c., when dead ripe, than while it is 

 in the doughy state, Init more starch, woody-fibre, 

 &c. Now, as these last principles are of much less 

 value, in the animal economy, than tlie former, it is 

 of course wisdom to cut grain in the dough state. 

 I am not aware of any experiments to test the truth 

 of this opinion, yet general impressions are often 

 correct, and I believe this one to be. 



Buckwheat ripens so unevenly, that, if the 

 Aveather ])ermits, it pays best to let it stand until 

 the last blossoms are brown. G. c, l. 



Lynn, Susq. Co., Pa., 1857. 



MANAGEMENT OF PERMANENT GRASS LAND. 



Much difference of oi)inion exists among farmers 

 on the management of Grass Laud, and especially of 

 Land that is to remain in grass permanently. * In 

 this article I shall simply give my views, which are 

 the results of some eleven years experience and ob- 

 servation. If the land is designed for pasturage, let 

 the fences around it be made good every spring, and 

 at any other time that they may by accident get out 

 of repair. The pasture should be cleaned of all 

 stones and stumps in order that the whole surface 

 may be available for grass. Stock of any kind 

 should not be allowed to go on verv early' in the 

 spring or late in the f\Ul lest the sod be stamped and 

 cut up badly with the feet of the cattle and horses, 

 and made much less productive than it otherwise 

 would be, and also tliat in tlie spring the grass may 

 get well started. A good manure for pastures is 

 plaster sown broadcast in the spring; this, with the 

 tlroppings of the stock will greatly increase the quan- 



tity and quality of the grass. For a permanent 

 meadow, the directions previously given in reference 

 to fences and removing stones, stumps, &c., should 

 be observed. Do not allow stock to pasture on the 

 meadow at any season of the year, for it injures 

 meadows very much to be eaten down by stock and 

 the surface will always be injured more or less by be- 

 ing trodden by animals at any season. Most kinds 

 of manures can be apidied with profit, but do not 

 neglect to sow broadcast one or two hundred pounds 

 of ]>laster per acre every spring as soon as the fif- 

 teenth of April, if practicable. In the spring the 

 meadow should be thorougly rolled as soon as it is 

 dry enough to allow the team to Avalk on it without 

 stamping up the surface. Every year if possible, 

 and certainly every second year after tlie crop of 

 hay has been harvested, or, as soon as the first of 

 September, let there be drawn twenty -five or thir- 

 ty cart loads of barn yard manure, comjiost from 

 the compost heap, or leached aslies,and evenly spread 

 over the surface of the meadow. This ai»pli('ation 

 or top dressing will cause the grass to spring up and 

 be much more thrifty than it otherwise would be, 

 and the grass and manure will furnish a good pro- 

 tection for the roots of the grass during the wintei*. 

 Meadows thus managed will improve every year. 



Ulckory Bluff, N. Y. BEE. 



CUTTING AND CURING CLOVER FOR HAY. 



I ("ut my clover a-s soon as the first blossoms be- 

 gin to turn brown; 1st because the blossoms at this 

 tune contain a large amount of saccharine matter 

 adapted to the jiurpose of generating animal heat, 

 forming fat, or ])roducing butter. 2d there is less 

 indigestible wood fibre in the stalk than after the 

 formation <>f the seed. Do not cut it when wet 

 either with dew or rain; it costs more time to dry 

 it properly, and the evaporation seems more to in- 

 jure clover than any other kind of grass. Let it lie 

 in the swath until wilted on the top; turn the swath 

 directly over, let it lie a couple of hours, then put 

 it into very small cocks ; if the weather is very fa- 

 vorable it may stand over the next day, but by all 

 means avoid being wet with rain. On the day I 

 get it in, slightly open the cock, turn up the bottom 

 to the sun and it is soon ready for the barn. I pre- 

 fer a scaffold, and pack it as lightly as possible. 



In 185G I milked several cows in the spring. 

 They were fed two quarts of Indian meal per day 

 each, and as much Timothy hay as they would eat. 

 I then fed clover cured as above for one week, got 

 one-third more milk, twice as much cream, and of 

 better quality. Tlie next week fed Timotliy hay — 

 milk and cream as at first. I then fed clover hay 

 with the same result as before. The same change 

 was made several times in succession with the same 

 result. 



Last winter I fed about seven tons of clover hay 

 cured as above without any grain, — cow gave 

 abundance of milk, horse grew fat, and colt contin- 

 ued to grow through the winter as fast as through 

 the summer before. 



Clover cut after the seed is formed is neai-ly val- 

 ueless as fodder, as all who have tried it well know. 

 Clover as well as other hay is often "dusty." This I 

 apprehend is owing to its not being entirely free 

 from water when placed in the mow. 



Marathon, Cort. Co., N. Y. ALONZO QUINN. 



