202 
WHY DOES NOT HAY CAUSE THE PRODUCTION OF MORE MILK?-ETC. 
WHY DOES NOT HAY CAUSE THE PRO¬ 
DUCTION OF MORE MILK? 
The above is a highly important query for the 
farmer, and a true solution of it would be of immense 
value to him. The great advantages of soiling 
cattle is in the mouth of every one who has tried 
it; yet one of its greatest claimed merits is the 
additional quantity of fodder a given quantity of land 
will yield in food, which is cut and carried from the 
land for consumption, instead of being fed off where 
it grows. The cropping of the grass before it is pro¬ 
perly matured ; the injury done to the stalks and 
leaves by the hoofs of the cattle ; and the offensive 
state in which much of it frequently is from their 
droppings, and its trampled and soiled condition, are 
important items which go to make up the estimate in 
favor of the soiling system. The important query 
then arises, why should not the hay which has been 
cut at the most proper time, well secured, and pro¬ 
perly fed, produce as great a quantity of milk, as the 
grass would have done from which the hay is made? 
Or is there a fallacy on this subject, and cannot cows 
be made to take or digest as much nourishment in the 
form of hay, as in its fresh or green state ? That 
grass should lose any of its nutritive qualities in dry¬ 
ing, is contrary to philosophy and experience, so far 
as it has been accurately noted ; for Daubenton, a 
half century since, ascertained from actual experience, 
that a sheep would eat 8 lbs. of fresh cut grass in 24 
hours, and 2 lbs. of hay in the same time; and that 
the grass lost just three-fourths of its weight in dry¬ 
ing, so that the quantity of nourishment was equal in 
both conditions of the fodder. It is ihe result of our 
own observation, that on similar clay land, well put 
down to grass, and in moderate condition, two acres 
of pasture will sustain a cow 7 months in the year, 
and one acre of meadow will keep her through the 
winter, or 5 months, the average time of foddering in 
latitude about 42<> 45' in Western New York. But 
in summer, the cow is yielding milk in large quanti¬ 
ties; in the winter, scarcely any. On every phy¬ 
siological principle, other things being equal, the cow 
ought to consume, and probably does, a larger quan¬ 
tity of food to produce the same results, in conse¬ 
quence of the increased demands for the carbon and 
hydrogen of the food in respiration, w T hich is neces¬ 
sary to sustain the vital heat. Yet in summer, the 
.cow takes much more exercise when driven to and 
from pasture, and in her rambles over it, than when 
<confined in the yard or stall in winter, and this may 
be a full equivalent for the former. 
May not the solution of tbis matter rest, in part, in 
the probable fact, that the stomach digests the grass 
much more readily, and in larger quantities, and at 
much less expense of the vital powers, than it does 
the hay; and that it can thus assimilate a larger 
amount of nutritive matter from grass in its green, 
than in its dry state ? Daubenton’s experiment halted 
at this point. He found his sheep ate the same quan¬ 
tity in each condition of the grass; but he did not 
ascertain whether the sheep were making as much 
wool and flesh, or the ewes giving as much milk in 
their food in its cured as in its fresh state ; nor are we 
aware of any satisfactory experiment which does. It 
has been recently ascerta ned., that as grasses mature 
and dry, a certain proportion of the leaves and stalks, 
which in their green state are highly nutritious, are 
converted into woody fibre, which in the stomachs of 
most ruminating animals is generally indigestible, and 
passes off unappropriated by the system, with the 
loeces. May not this circumstance have something 
to do with explaining this question ? 
Would not the cutting and steaming of hay do 
much to reduce the hay as nearly to its original state 
as grass as possible, though it would still leave it 
with the probably irremediable objection, of the con¬ 
version of apportion of its formerly nutritious quali¬ 
ties into woody fibre ? In the absence of an agricul¬ 
tural establishment, under strictly scientific manage¬ 
ment, with an experimental farm attached,where this 
with numerous other problems could be solved to the 
great advancement of practical husbandry, some of 
our leading agriculturists, who are in possession of 
ample means, and zeal, and accuracy of observation, 
fully adequate to the object, might resolve some of 
our doubts on this subject. A capacious bin or vat, 
steam tight, capable of holding a ton of hay, easy of 
access and delivering of its contents, with an eco¬ 
nomical system of heating it, is all that would he 
necessary to prepare the hay. Bran or meal scatter¬ 
ed through the hay and subject to the same treatment, 
would add much to its value. 
To give this experiment its full value, a compari¬ 
son, accurately noted, should be made, of hay fed in 
its dry, uncut state; fed dry and cut; steamed uncut; 
cut and steamed; steamed with bran or meal; each 
trial to be made with a distinct class or classes of 
cows, for several weeks in succession, and each class 
to go through all the various forms of feeding : and 
the results in quantity and quality of milk to be 
given, undereach system of feeding; and the prices 
of food and its quality, and cost of preparing. Who¬ 
ever of our enterprising and wealthy agriculturists 
will give to the public the above results under cir¬ 
cumstances to command implicit confidence, will, in 
the somewhat sarcastic phrase of Dean Swift, con¬ 
fer a greater benefit on the human family, than the 
whole race of politicians put together. 
PROPAGATION OF PLANTS AND TREES 
BY T LEAVES. 
Bradley, who translated Agricola’s Husbandry in 
• 1721, affirms that he could propagate nearly all kinds 
of trees and plants by leaves. De Candolle admits 
that some may be thus propagated ; but says, “ the 
greater part of leaves when separated from their pa¬ 
rent stock are incapable of it.” F. Mandirola, how¬ 
ever, gives us the manner of propagating the citron 
melon tree leaf, in which he was entirely successful 
a century and a half ago. He says : 
“ I took for that purpose a sort of little flower-pot 
full of the best sifted earth; I planted in it some 
leaves of those kinds of trees, with their stalks so 
deep that the third part of the leaf was covered with 
earth; over that pot I fastened a small pitcher full 
of water, so as that it might drop directly down into 
the middle of the pot, and the hollow which was 
made by the falling of the drops I continually filled 
up with fresh earth; thus they cost me but little 
trouble, and they all shot up and grew very well. I 
pursued it with the greatest patience in the world, 
and found that through a too often dropping of the 
water, the leaves began to rot, and so wasted away 
of themselves by little and little, so as that at last 
nothing was left but the stems; but it having been 
observed since, that from the callous matter that cam® 
