AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
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AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHY, THE MOST USEEUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN. - Washington. 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY ALLEN & CO., 189 WATER ST. 
VOL. XII.—NO. 18.] 
NEW-YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 1854. 
[NEW SERIES.—NO. 44. 
m*FOR PROSPECTUS, TERMS, tfc., 
SEE LAST PAGE. 
WHEN SHOULD CHOPS BE GATHERED. 
SOME SCIENCE AND SOME PRACTICAL HINTS, WHICH 
EVERY FARMER SHOULD UNDERSTAND 
AND PRACTISE UPON. 
The prevailing opinion is, that grass, and es¬ 
pecially grain crops, should not be cut till ripe ; 
or whatever may be the opinion, such is the gen¬ 
eral practice. This is an error, and one of no 
little consequence; and we offer some consider¬ 
ations, which, if understood, will, we trust, set 
this matter in a clearer light. Let us first look 
at one or two lessons plainly told us by chemis¬ 
try. 
Wood, starch, sugar and gum are almost ex¬ 
actly alike in their composition. The same ele¬ 
ments that put together in one form produce 
sugar, if arranged differently would make wood, 
and if arranged in still other methods, they 
would produce starch or gum. To illustrate ; 
suppose four men should each have 100,000 
bricks, 1000 bushels of sand, 600 bushels of 
lime, 20,000 feet of lumber, including beams, 
boards, shingles, &c., three hundred pounds of 
nails, and 100 lbs of unmixed paints of two or 
three different colors. Now suppose these four 
men, having precisely the same amounts of the 
different materials or elements, set about put¬ 
ting up four structures, each having a differ¬ 
ent object in view. One might construct an 
elegant cottage dwelling, the second a church, 
the third a barn, and the fourth a prison; and 
by mixing and applying the paints differently, 
each of these structures would differ from the 
others so much in form and color, that one 
might be supposed to be built of stone, another 
of brick, a third of iron, and a fourth of wood, 
and they would be as unlike in form, color, and 
outward appearance, as starch, gum, sugar, and 
wood. Either of these buildings might be taken 
down, and by simply re-arranging the materi¬ 
als, be changed to the form, shape, and color of 
one of the other buildings, and be made like it 
in every particular. Just so can a pound of 
wood be changed to a pound of sugar. We 
have often taken a board weighing a pound, and 
by a chemical process rearranged the elements, 
and changed the same board to a pound of sugar. 
Just so a pound of starch, gum, or sugar, can 
be changed to a pound of wood. By artificial 
means this change is somewhat expensive, but 
in the natural laboratory of the cells and tubes 
of a plant, it is daily going on upon a large 
scale, although the elements are in themselves 
so small, that the change is not perceptible to 
the human vision. 
We are not stating theories but absolute facts. 
While a stalk or grain is unripe it contains but 
little woody fibre, and its pores or cells are filled 
with sugar, starch and gum. The presence of 
sugar is readily perceived by the sweet taste of 
soft kernels of corn and other grains, and it is 
also found abundantly in the sap of the stalks. 
The starch and gum are not so readily perceived 
by the taste though they are easily shown to be 
present. Now as the grain and stalks ripen a 
large portion of the starch, gum and sugar is 
changed jnto woody fibre. If the natural 
growth of the plant be arrested by cutting it, 
this change is stopped, and it dries up, with its 
pores filled up with the starch, gum and sugar, 
and there is comparatively little hard woody 
matter. 
But we all know that the three substances 
first named are digestible, nourishing articles of 
food, while the fourth—woody fibre—is com¬ 
paratively indigestible, and is on this account 
little nourishing. Here, then, is a plain reason 
why all such grasses and grains, as are designed 
for food for animals, should be gathered before 
they are fully ripe, that is, while they contain a 
large amount of digestible matter. Wheat, for 
example, if cut eight or ten days before fully 
ripe, contains a large proportion of starch, with 
a thin skin, and will yield a large amount of 
flour; but when it is fully ripe it is covered with 
a thick, hard, woody skin, or bran, which has 
been formed out of a part of its starch, and it 
will then yield a much smaller proportion of 
flour. The same may be said of its sugar and 
gum. This reasoning applies equally to other 
grains as well as to straw, corn-stalks, grasses, 
&c. 
Those portions of the grain which are to be 
used solely for reproducing the plant—and this 
is the natural design of all seeds— may be left 
to ripen naturally. The woody coating is de¬ 
signed as a protecting covering. 
Having thus endeavored to state very briefly 
some of the reasons for cutting grain early —and 
it must be interesting to every one to under¬ 
stand these reasons—we will close this article 
with two or three rules which are not only sus¬ 
tained by theory, but have been fully proved by 
careful practice and experiment. 
1st. All grasses should be cut as soon as pos¬ 
sible after flowering. Much more than is gain¬ 
ed in weight after this, is lost by the conver¬ 
sion of the nourishing substances into hard, 
woody matter. 
2d. Corn, wheat, and all other grains designed 
for food, should be gathered eight to twelve 
days before fully ripe. A simple method of 
determining this, is to try the kernels with the 
thumb nail. Let the gathering commence im¬ 
mediately after the “milk” begins to harden, 
but while the kernel still yields to a gentle pres¬ 
sure of the nail. 
An acre of wheat, that if cut when fully ripe 
would yield 800 lbs. of fine flour, will, if cut 
ten days earlier, yield from 850 to 1000 lbs. of 
flour of a better quality, while the straw will 
be much more valuable for feeding. 
An acre of grass, which when cut fully ripe 
would yield 1000 lbs. of nourishing digestible 
materials, and 2000 lbs. of woody matter, will, 
if cut 12 days earlier, yield from 1500 to 1800 
lbs. of nourishing matter, and only 1200 to 1500 
lbs. of woody materials. 
THE BEST HOGS FOR BACON. 
Dr. Lee, in the Southern Cultivator asserts, 
that “ the Leicester hog, as improved by the 
celebrated Bake well, is a better bacon animal 
than either the Berkshire, Northampton, Here¬ 
fordshire, or Suffolk.” We should be glad if 
the Doctor would give us his proof and author¬ 
ity for such an assertion. We know the Lei¬ 
cester, the Suffolk, and the Berkshire well—have 
bred them long, and seen many of other’s breed¬ 
ing—but this is the first time we ever heard the 
assertion, that the Leicester made the best ba¬ 
con. For bacon and hams, we believe we may 
say without the fear of contradiction, from any 
experienced pork packer, that the Berkshire is 
the best breed in existence. The simple reason 
is, his sides are better marbled, and his hams 
are more full of lean, tender, juicy meat. 
The Doctor recommends the Woburn hog to 
a correspondent. We should be glad to come 
across a genuine Woburn, as perfected and bred 
by the Duke of Bedford, on his estate at Wo¬ 
burn. Thirteen years ago, the agent of his 
estates informed us in England, that the breed 
had run out there for many years—and he did 
not know of one any where in the kingdom—and 
did not believe that they any longer existed. 
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CULTIVATION OF FLAX. 
We make some extracts from an article in the 
Mark Lane Express, urging English farmers to 
turn their attention to flax and hemp. This 
confirms what we have already said in reference 
to this subject, and it should awaken our farm¬ 
ers and manufacturers to the importance of the 
present crisis for establishing a valuable branch 
of industry in our midst. The article com¬ 
mences : 
In consequence of the war with Russia, from 
which the principle portion of our supply of 
hemp and flax is drawn, the energetic people of 
the United States are turning their attention to 
the growth of hemp. That flax will, without 
doubt, be taken up with equal alacrity, both 
there and in British America. 
