80 PRACTICAL NOTES ON GRASSES AND GRASS GROWING. 
sake, perhaps) haysel is postponed to a later date than this, 
the injury to the sets becomes the more aggravated. We 
regret that we are in a position to record a recent and striking 
illustration which we are not likely to forget, because the 
mistake was ours and we had to bear the loss. 
In the year 1893 one of the best fields on our farm was fed 
late, and afterwards closed. The summer was so dry that the 
hay never grew sufficiently long for us to cut, and in con- 
sequence we did not feed it until after harvest. In 1894 
we fed it, and found it had sadly deteriorated. Unfortunately 
we again fed it late in 1895, closing it for hay afterwards. In 
July wet weather set in, followed by drought (as in 1893), 
which caused a most uneven growth, and, forcing weather 
bringing on harvest earlier than we had anticipated, we again 
neglected the pasture until harvest was over, when we mowed 
the coarser spots and found this once fine meadow practically 
ruined. 
We fancy we can hear several of our friends saying, 
** Physician, heal thyself.” Our only answer is “* Humanum est 
errare.” 
Some places on the field have become intensely coarse, 
others will grow little or nothing, and we are now concen- 
trating all our efforts to bring it back again to its former state. 
Closing a ley for ensilage making is quite different to closing 
it for hay, because it is the soft, unripe, and half-matured grass, 
that is best adapted for this purpose ; hence the would-be 
ensilage maker can cut his grass early and persistently, 
thereby strengthening and nursing his best grasses, and 
giving them every chance of thriving and doing well, at the 
same time weakening the coarser varieties to their subsequent 
advantage, and so bleeding the weeds that they are rendcred 
innocuous for many a day to come. 
Not only grasses, but clovers, lucernes, tares, oats, maize— 
in fact, almost any kind of herbage—are suitable for being 
converted into ensilage. 
