16 



one bushel h. g., sometimes two bushels h. g. In the last case, the 

 land was manured In an abundant manner ; the soil moist and clayey, 

 and highly favorable to herds grass ; and such an amount of seed 

 was sown in order to prevent the crop from being too coarse. 



The herds grass seed brought into our market is often injured 

 by being too much rotted ; so that a considerable portion of it will 

 not vegetate. The best method of curing it which I have met with, 

 is to cut it when dry in a good day ; allow it to lay one day and a 

 half; tie it in bundles ; and set it upright in a barn chamber or on a 

 scaffold, well ventilated ; and where the scattering seed may be 

 saved. Cured in this way, it may be considered worth double the 

 price of that usually offered for sale. 



It has been (he practice with many farmers to omit sowing clover 

 for a few years past. They are reverting to their former custom ; 

 and sowing a portion of clover with their other hay seeds, as other- 

 wise they get in the first mowing a comparatively small crop from 

 the land ; and tiiey deem it better for the land newly laid down that 

 it should be shaded with clover, which starts immediately after being 

 cut, rather than exposed to the severity of the sun's rays, as it is 

 where only herds grass is sown. 



Of the proper time of cutting herds grass, v.hich is the principal 

 grass cultivated in the county, the general impression is, that it should 

 be cut early rather than late ; and that the most desirable time is as 

 soon as the seeds begin to shake off. The buyers in the market 

 require that hay should be bright and green. A very shrewd farmer 

 remarks, however, as the result of his observation, that grass spends 

 much better, when perfectly ripened, than when cut early ; besides 

 that it is then cured at much less expense. The farmers in the 

 interior are in the habit of cutting their grass much later than those 

 farmers who prepare it for market. As far as the tables of the nu- 

 tritive matter found in different grasses, made by order of the Duke 

 of Bedford, are to be relied upon, it seems that an acre of this grass, 

 when cut at the time of flowering, yielded 1595 lbs. of nutritive 

 matter ; and when cut while in -sefld it yielded 3668 lbs. of nutritive 

 matter, making a difference la^jt^ov of cutting it when perfectly ripe, 

 of 2073 lbs. 



What is called the Ipswich hay in Boston is usually of a bright 



