No. 199.] 14 



best agricultural periodicals, and the same proportion of our best 

 practical fanners, say that the season of flowering is the best time to 

 cut the grasses for hay, and some of them do not even except timothy. 

 If reason and general practice establish the time or best time, it would 

 seem in this case the season of flowering is that time. This error of 

 late cutting, if it is one, and it is here thought it is, has arisen, it is 

 believed in a great measure, from an analysis of all the best grasses 

 grown in England, made some yenrs ago by Mr. George Sinclan, at 

 VVoburn Abbey, under the patronage of the late Duke of Bedford, 

 The results of liis experiments were, that all the grasses, and he ex- 

 amined a great many, with a few exceptions contained more nutri- 

 ment if cut after the seeds were ripe, and timothy more than twice as 

 much, than if cut in the flower. This analysis was sanctioned and 

 endorsed by the late Sir H. Davy, one of the greatest agricultural 

 chemists of his day, and it is thcught.he gave his name and sanction 

 without testing its correctness by his own experiments ; he took it 

 for granted to be correct. This is inferred from his own writings, 

 when speaking on the subject, and no other true inference, it is here 

 thought, can be drawn from what he says. If such is the fact, he 

 gave his sanction no doubt on the high opinion he had of Mr. Sin- 

 clair's reputation and knowledge of the grasses, which unquestionably 

 stood high at this time. These are great authorities, and it is not 

 doubted influenced some to take their correctness for granted, as Sir 

 H. Davy did Mr. Sinclair's, without examining thoroughly the rea- 

 sons of the case, and the opinions in WTiting of some of the best scien- 

 tific and practical farmers of the present day. The results of several 

 of Davy's experiments and opinions in agricultural chemistry, have 

 and still are thought to be incorrect, since such men as Liebig, the 

 Johnstons, and some others appeared. Prof. Johnston, of England, 

 in a lecture lately delivered on the subject, says, "the experiments 

 of Mr. Sinclair on the grasses have lost much of their value." John- 

 ston, after giving his reasons for this opinion, and these it is thought 

 have much weight, concludes : " Hence the nature and weight of 

 the dry extracts which he (Sinclair) obtained, could not fairly repre- 

 sent either the kind or quantity of nutritive matters which the hay 

 was likely to yield when introduced into the stomach of the animal." 

 Reasoning from analogy, all the grain plants, after the juices they 

 contain when green, have passed into the culmen or ear to form and 



