52 BOAKD OF AGRICULTUKE. [Pub. Doc. 



marsh clear to the head of the rake. "V\^iere the sod is firm 

 along the banks of the creeks a horse can often travel with- 

 out shoes for a little distance, but on most of our marsh he 

 would mire immediately if he did not wear bog shoes. The 

 shoes I use are of hard wood, ten inches in diameter, and 

 clamp onto the hoof by a thumb nut in front. Even with 

 these shoes it is not rare that a horse gets mired. This is, 

 however, one of the expected circumstances. 



Mr. Cleivients. I think salt hay in some quarters has 

 been very much underrated, and possibly for the reason it is 

 not cut early enough. Reference has been made to black 

 grass. I was in the habit with my father, twenty-five or 

 thirty years ago, of cutting twenty-five or thirty tons of 

 black grass every year. It blossoms early, and it should be 

 cut in June or early in July. We were in the habit of cut- 

 ting it for sheep. We kept a lot of breeding ewes, and I 

 think it was as good for them as upland hay. We fed it 

 during the winter months to the breeding ewes, and they 

 were kept in good condition, with a few roots, no English 

 hay at all. I think if we cut our marshes when they should 

 be cut that we should have much more value in our salt hay. 

 If that early cut black grass from the meadows around New- 

 bury could be analyzed, there would be found to be more 

 virtue in it than is generally supposed. 



Secretary Sessions. We have an experiment station which 

 would be glad to analyze some of this hay, and if you gentle- 

 men would attend to the selection of samples, they will be 

 analyzed for you. 



Mr. Evans. Mr. Chairman, there is a great difference in 

 samples of salt hay, and I have never placed confidence in 

 analyses that have been published, for that reason. We find 

 often that the grass on our low marshes, which we call river 

 marshes, is being fed to milch cows, while on our higher 

 marshes there is wire grass that we find better adapted for 

 horses. I do not know the reason, but that is the conclusion 

 we have arrived at after years of experience. I think also 

 that location, and the average run of the tide, give a very 

 difierent quality to grass. I would say here to any of the 

 audience who are not familiar with the fact, that the tides 

 twice a day fill the creeks to within a foot or a foot and a 



