No. 144.] 227 



Mr. Robinson — Then I will go on with the question. Last week 

 I visited the farm of the Phalanx, in New Jersey. I found them 

 cutting fine grass — very fine, but I thought it too green to cut; 

 there must be too much labor in drying it. And this practice 

 prevails over our country to a great extent. I think that timo- 

 thy, which gives a very nutritious seed, ought to stand until its 

 seed is ripe enough to grow A great many farmers contend for 

 their own theory and practice of letting grass stand for hay until 

 the seed is nearly or quite ripe, because it is so much more easily 

 cured, and also that it is much more nutritious, the seed being 

 equal to corn or oats. The straw, however, cannot be any better 

 than dry wheat straw. 



In perfecting its end, all kinds of grass undergo a chemical 

 change, and the stalk loses its saccharine. Witness the experi- 

 ments with corn stalks in the manufacture of sugar. If the seed 

 were permitted to remain upon the stalk and ripen, it would not 

 make sugar. So, undoubtedly, it would be even with the sugar 

 cane, which does not bear seed in this country; but if it did, the 

 cane would have to be cut before it ripened. In cutting a crop 

 of grass for hay, it will unavoidably happen that some of it will 

 mature, and therefore a farmer who has a great deal of it to do 

 should begin as soon as his earlier fields have attained nearly 

 their full growtli, as he will lose much less by that course than 

 by waiting lor it to mature. Grass should be cut when it is the 

 sweetest, and then, if well cured, the sweet will remain in the 

 hay, and will be eaten greedily and afford more nutriment than 

 dry stalks and seeds. 



Prof. Mapes, being requested, said: That he did not feel as 

 competent to it as to some other field of experiment. He had not 

 so large experience as some others. However, having paid some 

 attention to so interesting a matter of the farm, I will speak of it 

 as a scientific question, if you please. All chemists know that 

 starch which is a product of grasses is not soluble in water, but is 

 so in sulphuric acid. I have made sugar from corn stalks, and 

 know that the change from sweetness to acidity readily takes 

 place, and when this takes place in grass, its hay is not so good 

 for animals. Ripe grass contains more silex and woody fibre 



