130 PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY PASTURES 



clearing of stones from the field is therefore worth scrupulous 

 attention, and it should be done before the grass makes a start 

 in early spring. The turf must also be well bush-harrowed 

 and firmly rolled down. 



The time for mowing varies in different localities and in 

 different seasons. But there are sound reasons for urging the 

 importance of cutting the grass young, before even the earliest 

 varieties have formed seeds in their flower-heads. In most 

 grasses, and in all clovers, the formation of saccharine matter 

 takes place in their stems during the early stage of growth, 

 and the best hay is usually made from grass before the flower- 

 ing heads have begun to turn colour. Experiments made 

 in the chemical laboratory prove that, although there are 

 exceptions, the great majority of grasses contain nearly double 

 the quantity of nutritive matter before, than they do after, 

 ripening seeds. This applies also to the clovers which form so 

 large a proportion of every good meadow. 



An objection to the early cutting of grass deserves a 

 passing remark. It is quite true that young grass shrinks 

 more than grass of older growth. In other words, a larger 

 quantity of moisture is evaporated by the former, but as the 

 loss is pure water only, it is of no importance whatever. The 

 balance remains in favour of early mowing, for the hay is of 

 higher quality and far more digestible, to say nothing of the 

 advantage of an increased aftermath and the benefit conferred 

 on the pasture by early cutting. 1 



1 The following free extracts are from ' The Relative Feeding Value of Grass Cut 

 at Different Periods of Growth,' by Martin J. Sutton and Dr. J. A. Voelcker, published 

 in The Journal of the Bath and West and Southern Counties Society, Vol. II., Fourth 

 Series, and subsequently issued by the Society as a separate pamphlet : — 



' An old pasture at Kidmore was divided into five plots resembling each other in 

 texture, aspect, surface soil, subsoil, and in the botanical constituents of the turf. 

 These five plots were cue on the different dates named in the subjoined table. The 

 total weight of hay produced for the season was practically the same for Plots Nos. 1 

 and 3 ; but the fact must not be lost sight of that the relative dryness of hay in the 

 field is solely dependent on the state of the atmosphere at hay-time, and it is quite 

 impossible, in a series of cuttings extending over the whole season, to take up the 

 hay in the same degree of dryness each time. The real basis of comparison is not the 

 weight of hay, nor the weight of green produce, but the dry weight after moisture 



