256 HEAT AND MOISTURE. 



nutritious qualities ; that grass which is most exposed 

 to the sun being best. Woodland pastures will keep 

 young stock growing, and old ones on foot, but will 

 not fatten them. A three-year-old Durham will get 

 'stall fat' in a year on open blue grass." 



A farmer of Massachusetts says : " Grass grown in 

 the shade is lighter, and does not contain so much nutri- 

 ment. Wet seasons increase the weight and bulk of the 

 crop ; but the same weight does not contain the amount 

 of nutritive matter of hay raised in a dry season." And 

 another : " Hay grown in a dry season contains more 

 nutriment. This is particularly noticeable in the con- 

 dition of cattle in the spring following a dry season. I 

 do not consider grass grown in a dense shade worth 

 over half price." " From an experience of fifty years 

 in making hay, and thirty-five in feeding it out and sell- 

 ing it," says an intelligent practical farmer, " I should 

 say that in a wet season I never found anything like so 

 much heart or nutriment in hay as in a dry one. Grass 

 grown under a thick, shady tree is not worth one-half 

 as much as that grown in the sun. The grass this year 

 (1856) was well set in the spring, and grew very quick 

 when the warm weather came on; but still we had much 

 good, warm sun to bring it to maturity, and I think it 

 will spend pretty well, but probably not quite as well 

 as the same bulk last }^ear. " 



It is not necessary to multiply the authorities of 

 practical farmers on this point, since they uniformly 

 coincide with the testimony given above ; and it may 

 be regarded as fully established as the result both of 

 scientific investigations and of practical experience, that 

 both the quantity and the quality of grass, are in pro- 

 portion to the heat or sunlight and the moisture in 

 which it is grown. 



What has been said will explain the allowance which 



