AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
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AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN. — WASHINGTON. 
CONDUCTING EDITOR, PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 
ORANGE JUDD, A. M. • ALLEN &. COo 189 Water-st., New-York 
VOL XIV.—NO. 17.] NEW-YORK, THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1855. [NEW SERIES.-NO. 95 
-for Prospectus, ®erms, &r., 
^*SEE LAST PAGE. .Ari 
1Every one writing to the Editor or 
Publishers of this journal will please read 
“ Special Notices ,” on last page. 
All letters relating to Editorial mat¬ 
ters should be addressed to Mr. Orange 
.Tudd, (the Conducting Editor). 
Letters inclosing subscriptions and on oth¬ 
er business should be directed to Allen & 
Co., Publishers, and also those referring to 
both departments. Editorial and business 
matters, if in the same letter, should be on 
separate sheets. 
WHEN SHOULD CHOPS BE GATHERED. 
SOME SCIENCE AND SOME PRACTICAL HINTS, WHICH 
EVERY FARMER SHOULD UNDERSTAND 
AND PRACTICE. 
[The following editorial appeared nearly a 
year since, but the suggestions are so im¬ 
portant to every farmer at this particular 
period, we give the article again for the ben¬ 
efit of our thousands of new readers.] 
The prevailing opinion is,- that grass, and 
especially grain crops, should not be cut till 
ripe ; or whatever may be the opinion, such 
is the general practice. This is an error, and 
one of no little consequence ; and we offer 
some considerations, which, if understood, 
will, we trust, set this matter in a clearer 
light. Let us first look at one or two les¬ 
sons plainly told us by chemistry. 
Wood, starch, sugar and gum are almost 
exactly alike in their composition. The 
same elements 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, 1,000 bushels of sand. 
600 bushels of lime, 20,000 feet of lumber, in¬ 
cluding beams, hoards, shingles, &c., three 
hundred pounds of nails, and 100 lbs. of un- 
mixed paints of two or three different colors. 
Now suppose these four men, having pre¬ 
cisely the same amounts of the different ma¬ 
terials or elements, set about putting up four 
structures, each having a different object in 
view. One might construct an elegant cot¬ 
tage dwelling, the second a church, the third 
a barn, and the fourth a prison ; and by mix¬ 
ing 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 sim¬ 
ply rearranging the materials, be changed to 
the form, shape, and color of one of the other 
buildings, and be made like it in every par¬ 
ticular. 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 go¬ 
ing on upon a large scale, although the ele¬ 
ments 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 fiber, and its pores 
or cells are filled with sugar, starch and 
gum. The presence of sugar is readily per¬ 
ceived 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 into 
woody fiber. If the natural growth of 
the plant be arrested by cutting it, this 
change is stopped, and it dries up, with 
its pores filled with the starch, gum and 
sugar, 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 fiber—is 
comparatively 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 digesti¬ 
ble 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 ol 
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 designed 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 understand these reasons—we will 
close this article with two or three rules 
which are not only sustained by theory, but 
have been fully proved by careful practice 
and experiment. 
1st. All grasses should be cut as soon as 
possible after flowering. Much more than 
is gained in weight after this, is lost by the 
conversion of the nourishing substances into 
hard, woody matter. 
2d. Corn, wheat, and all other grains de¬ 
signed for food, should be gathered eight to 
twelve days before fully ripe. A. simple 
method of determining this, is to try the ker¬ 
nels with the thumb nail. Let the gather¬ 
ing commence immediately after “ milk ” be¬ 
gins to harden, but while the kernel still 
yields to a gentle pressure 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 1,000 
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 1,000 lbs. of nourishing di¬ 
gestible materials, and 2,000 lbs. of woody 
matter, will, if cut 12 days earlier, yield from 
1,500 to 1,800 lbs. of nourishing matter, and 
only 1,200 to 1,500 lbs. of woody materials. 
Coal. —The Cincinnati Railroad Record 
says that sixty million bushels of bitumin¬ 
ous coal are annually raised and consumed 
in the‘Ohio Valley alone. The coal fields 
of the Ohio Valley are estimated at nearly 
one hundred thousand (99,000) square miles, 
or over sixty-three million acres. Great 
Britain has only 12,000 square miles, or less 
than eight million acres, and yet produces 
nine hundred and twenty-five million bushels 
annually. 
Olive Trees at the South. —Mr. R. Chis¬ 
holm writes, in the Charleston (S. C.) Mer¬ 
cury, that he has three hundred olive trees 
under cultivation, and that he has had two 
varieties growing for ten years past. He 
says the fruit ripens fully in ihe low coun¬ 
ties of the South ; but he believes it can not 
be profitably cultivated for the oil at pres¬ 
ent, since cotton is a more remunerative 
crop. 
