46 



this is liable to failure ; but if it shows well in the spring, is on 

 good soil, and has been well manured, there is, in my experience, 

 hardly any crop that yields so large a return for the labor be- 

 stowed. On the 9th of June, 1860, when the clover had just be- 

 gun to blossom, the produce of seven and a half rods weighed 

 1415 pounds. This is at the rate of 30,186 pounds, or a little 

 more than 15 tons to the acre, at the first cutting. My eight 

 cows (of about average size) ate 1200 pounds of that clover in 

 one day. An acre like this would therefore feed one cow 201 

 days, at one - cutting. I did not weigh the second cutting, but 

 think the amount taken off was at least two-thirds as large as the 

 first, or 20,000 pounds, and the third not less than 15,000 pounds 

 — a total for the whole season of about 65,000 pounds, or 32 1-2 

 tons of green fodder, of the best quality, from one acre — equal to 

 the feed of one cow for 433 days, allowing, as above, 150 pounds 

 a day. 



To ascertain the amount of hay in this fodder, I dried 100 

 pounds, which then weighed but 17 pounds, showing that it con- 

 tained, green, 83 per cent, of water, above what remains in what 

 we call dry hay. So each cow ate daily equal to 25 1-2 pounds 

 of hay, mixed with 124 1-2 pounds of water. 



Those who have committed blunders are permitted, I believe, to 

 caution others against falling into the same wrong courses. My 

 faith in clover, as above expressed, was so strong at the beginning 

 of the season just past, that, trusting in the fine promise of my 

 fields in the early spring, I neglected to prepare for a suffi- 

 ciency of other crops to keep up a convenient supply of green 

 fodder for the whole season. The first cutting of clover was good, 

 and the weather such in the early part of June as to give good 

 promise for the future ; and thinking I had an abundant supply, I 

 cut and hayed some that was beginning to fall down about the 

 middle of June. But immediately after, there came on a spell of 

 very Avarm and dry weather, that so scorched the surface of the 

 ground as to prevent the starting of the expected second growth, 

 or at least so checked it that there was but a very light crop, and 

 consequently I came sadly short of feed, and was obliged to use 

 much grass that was intended for hay, and use it, too, when it had 

 become too ripe to serve the purpose well, the cows looking dis- 

 contented when it was placed before them. The season's experi- 

 ence has convinced me strongly that it is unsafe to indulge a 

 sanguine faith in a close calculation. It is best to make a liberal 

 allowance against the uncertainties of the weather, for the surplus 

 is always available for hay. M. P. 



Concord, October 31, 1861. 



