3C0 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



CUTTING AND CURING HAY. 



Foi" more tlian tliirty years it has been a com- 

 mon saying among larmers, that timothy hay 

 shoul'l not he cut until ripe — that is, until tlie 

 heads were plump and full of seed. I was raised 

 in a country where gnuss was thought ready to cut 

 as soon ;ia it was large enough ; and after I came 

 here, I loUowed through tlie same practice, al- 

 though in opposition to the opinion and practice 

 of many ot my good neighbors. I followed the 

 practice so long, and had so many opportunities 

 to prove it, that I know to a certtiinty that my 

 practice is right. For some 8 or 10 years past, I 

 have used mostly timothy hay. Previous to that. 

 r used more clover. Very olten 1 have not been 

 able to get it all cut before harvest ; and having 

 several cattle and sheep yards, some one lot of 

 ciittle had to cat the ripe hay, and I am perfectly 

 sure that it is a great loss to let timotliy hay get 

 anything near ripe : in fact, whenever it begins 

 to come in blossom, it is time to begin cutting. If 

 there is much to cut, and not plenty ot hands, 

 some will then get too ripe. I would prefer good 

 wheat straw, cut before it is too ripe, to ripe tim- 

 othy, for either sheep or cittle. 



A number of years ago, 1 built a cow house, and 

 that season I cut my timothy hay earlier than us- 

 ual. I stabled my cows for the first time that 

 year ; fed them the early cut timothy haj, and 

 took every possi'ile care o the cattle, but they be- 

 came poor, would eat but little of my green hay, 

 and by spring the cows and young cattle were 

 overrun with lice, and poorer by far than I ever 

 had cattle. I concluded 1 had cut my timothy 

 hay too green, and that my neighbors were part- 

 ly right. Next season I let it get nearly ripe, but 

 my cows did no better. I then concluded it must 

 be stabling, and took out my stalls, and turned 

 my stables into sheds. After that my cows got fat 

 on green hay. After I began to fatten cattle ex- 

 tensively, I found out that my cow stables were 

 not thorouglily ventilated, and tiiis was the only 

 reason they did not do well in their st-ibles. 



The loss farmers sustain by letting their hay 

 get too ripe, is immense. 1 would rather have 

 four quarts of meal per day, with good green tim- 

 othy hay, than to have a peck with ripe hay to fat 

 a steer with. Cut grass or clover green, cure in 

 swath or cock, and it will make either sheep or 

 steers fat in five months, without grain, if they 

 arc properly attended to, but still it is more profi- 

 table to feed part grain. 



I have wintered this season about 200 sheep on 

 wheat straw, with one bushel of oil cake meal to 

 the KH) sheep per day, and now they are fat, al- 

 though but thin when I bougiit them. 



New Geneva. John Joiinso.n. 



We believe with our correspondent, that the 

 loss sustained by our farmers, by too long delay in 

 cutting their grass is immense. It is a subject to 

 which we have frequently called the attention of 

 our readers for years past. Both science and ex- 

 perience (hnnonstrate that the proper time for cut- 

 ting grat-s is wlien it is in blossom. A writer on 

 the scientific principle, in the process of hay- 

 making, lays down the following rules : 



1. (Jrass must l>e fully developed before it is 

 mown ; if not, it will be found in its early stages 

 to contain 8o much water as to be reduced, on 



drying, into so small a compass, that it will in 

 quantity much disappoint the hay-makers. 



2. It must not be permitted to stand until its 

 seeds are formed, much less ripe. All plants in 

 arriving at maturity have their starch and sugar 

 gum in large quantities converted into woody fibre 

 — a wise provision of Providence for enabling the 

 stem to bear matured seeds — and as sugar, gum 

 and starch are nutritive elements, it is di sirable 

 that tliey should be preserved, and hence the 

 point for successful grass-cutting is that l)etwecn 

 the full development of the plant and before the 

 formation of the seeds ; in other words when they 

 are in flower. 



A government report, published in the Edin- 

 burgii Quar. Jour, of Agriculture, on the "chem- 

 ical properties of grass and hay as food for cat- 

 tle," says — "If as wo have endeavored to show, 

 the sugar is an important clement of the food of 

 animals, then it should be an object with the far- 

 mer to cut grass for the purpose of haymaking at 

 that period when the larger amount of matter is 

 contained in it. This is assuredly at an earlier 

 period of its growth than when it has shot into 

 seeds; for it is then that the woody matter pre- 

 dominates — a substance totally insoluble in water 

 and tlierefbi'C less calculated to serve as food to an- 

 imals than substances capable of assuming a solu- 

 ble condition. It ought to be tiie object of the 

 farmer to preserve his hay for winter use in the 

 condition most resembling the hay in its highest 

 state of perfection. 



We add to the above, the testimony of several 

 careful and observing farmers, heretofore pub- 

 lished in the Cultivator. 



C. M. Bement — Was formerly in the habit of 

 cutting his timothy quite late, because it was easi- 

 er cured after it got pretty ripe ; but he ascer- 

 tained, from careful experiment in using hay thus 

 cut, that it wanted substance, and that the best 

 time for cutting hay was when the grass was in 

 blossom. 



Sanford Howard — The stems of grasses' were 

 filled just before the formation of the seed, with a 

 starchy or saccharine substance. In perfecting 

 the seed, the stems were exhausted of this sub- 

 stance, it being consumed in forming the seed. — 

 The plant should be cut before the nutriment has 

 passed from the stems. 



W. II. Sotham • — Would as soon have good 

 bright straw for cows or sheep, as timothy hay 

 cut after it has gone to seed. Cut all his hay ear- 

 ly. There was another great advantage in cut- 

 ting early — the roots i-etained their life and 

 strength better, and the after feed and future crop 

 were more abundant. 



J. Pratt — Commences cutting his hay generally 

 before any one else thinks of it, or as it begins to 

 blossom, and gets help (inough to cut it all as soon 

 as po.ssible. lie has kept a dairy of sixty cows for 

 nine years, and attriluites his success with his 

 cows, and the fine healthy appearance of his other 

 stock, mainly to early cut hay. 



Since the above was in tyf>e, we have received 

 an interesting paper from a correspondent in Mc- 

 ehanicsville, on the proper time lor cutting, and 

 the best mode of curing iiay, which shall have a 

 place soon, and for whicli the writer will pleaeo 

 accept our thanks. — Coimtry Gcnihrtian, 



