90 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



actual experiment, that that has been ruinous to our hay crop. 

 But, after all, there is a maxim, in medio tiitissimus ibis, — in 

 the middle course there is more safety than in extremes, — and 

 it may be that our fields would suffer no injury if fed off dur- 

 ing a certain portion of the year, and the cattle not kept on 

 them until the snow comes, so that they are gnawing down to 

 the very roots of the grass. The difficulty is for the farmer to 

 exercise the judgment in this mode of feeding that the occa- 

 sion may require. When once he has got his cattle on the 

 meadow, his indolence, and the desire to save his hay, combine 

 to induce him to leave them there until they are driven by the 

 bleak winds into the barn ; and the result is, that the timothy 

 grass is gnawed down to the very roots, so that there is no vi- 

 tality left in it the next spring to produce the hay crop which 

 our meadows ought to yield. It may be possible, by an abun- 

 dance of manure and very careful cultivation, to bring up our 

 grass fields so that they will afford proper nourishment in the 

 fall to our cattle ; but it does seem almost impossible to carry 

 out that theory of feeding by which, for two months after the 

 grass in our pastures is substantially gone, we are to feed our 

 cattle on our meadows, and yet expect the next year to get a 

 good crop of hay from those same meadows. 



But, gentlemen, my experience has been, and I apprehend it 

 has been the experience of a great many farmers, that there is 

 a great deal of reliance to be placed on this corn-fodder which 

 my friend the doctor so thoroughly anathematizes. The better 

 class of our farmers about here have been raising this corn-fod- 

 der for several years, and I have never heard anything said 

 against it until this season by Mr. Nicholson and Dr. Loring. 

 Mr. Nicholson says that this corn-fodder, being grown so close 

 and deprived of light and air, does not contain so much nour- 

 ishment by half as ordinary corn ; and he seems to come to the 

 same conclusion as Dr. Loring — that this corn-fodder is not 

 worth raising. There you have an illustration of Prof. Chad- 

 bourne's doctrine again. These gentlemen have been experi- 

 menting ; but we have been experimenting here, and we find 

 that for two months of the year there is nothing better to carry 

 our cows through than this corn-fodder. Our way is to sow it 

 broadcast, and just before the frost comes cut it down and let 

 it dry for three or four days, as you do your hay ; then put it 



