1847. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
219 
department of education in our colleges and normal 
schools. As each town by itself could not afford to em¬ 
ploy a competent person, a number of them (more or 
less, according to their wealth and the importance of 
the roads within their bounds,) should unite in an asso¬ 
ciation for that purpose. 
The engineer thus appointed, should choose, in each 
township, an active, industrious man, of ordinary educa¬ 
tion, to act as his deputy in making the expenditures in 
that town, and as foreman of the laborers employed du¬ 
ring the season of active labor on the roads. This 
deputy might be busily and profitably employed during 
the entire remainder of the year, in constantly passing 
over in due rotation the whole line of road under his 
care, and making, himself, the slight repairs which the 
continual wear and tear of the travel would render 
necessary. If taken in time, he himself could perform 
them; but if left unattended to, as is usual , till the sea¬ 
son of general repairs, the deterioration would increase 
in a geometrical ratio, and perhaps cause an accident 
to a traveller, which would subject the town to damages 
tenfold the cost of repairs. 
The laborers hired by the deputy in each town should 
be employed by piece work as far as is possible. This 
can be carried out to a great extent, when the superin¬ 
tendent is competent to measure accurately the vari¬ 
ous descriptions of work, and to estimate their compara¬ 
tive difficulty. When the work cannot be properly exe¬ 
cuted by portions allotted to one man, it may be taken 
by gangs of four or five, who should form their own as¬ 
sociations, make a common bargain, and divide the pay. 
In work not susceptible of definite calculation as to 
quantity or quality, and in such only, day-labor may be 
resorted to under a continual and vigilant superinten¬ 
dence. 
In such a system as has been here sketched, the mo¬ 
ney tax would be found to be not only more equitable 
than the personal labor system, but even less burden¬ 
some. None of it would be wasted; and those who had 
skiy and strength for road work would receive back, in 
w£ges, more than their share of it. : those who were skil¬ 
ful in other work might remain at that which was most 
profitable to them, and pay only their simple share of 
the road-tax, not double, as when they now commute; 
and the only losers by the change would be the indolent, 
who were useless under the old system, but under this, 
would be obliged to contribute their share; while great 
gain in every way would ensue to the community at 
large. The subject urgently demands legislative at¬ 
tention. 
CUTTING GRASS FOR HAY. 
The stage at which it is proper to cut grass for 
hay, undoubtedly varies with the different species. Some 
kinds, as the orchard grass, (Dactylis glomerata ,) and 
the common u spire grass,” or Kentucky blue grass, 
(Poa pratensis,) make only a small weight, compara¬ 
tively, in culms or seed stalks, but in favorable soils 
throw up an abundance of long, rich leaves. Where a 
heavy growth of such grasses is produced, it is best to 
mow them twice or more in a season—the first time 
when they are in flower, (or sooner if they lodge down,) 
and at such times afterwards as they will afford a suita¬ 
ble burden. But if the land is not rich, there will be 
only a few seed-stalks, and it may in many cases be 
better to let them die and dry up, and permit the growth 
of the leaves to continue till the latter part of the sea¬ 
son, or till a good crop is accumulated. It should be 
remembered however, that in all cases where there is a 
thick growth which lodges or falls down, it should at 
once be cut; otherwise the grass will spoil by fermenta¬ 
tion, and the roots, also, will be more or less killed. 
It is probable that timothy, the herds-grass of New Eng¬ 
land, (Phleum pratense,) attains its maximum amount 
of nutriment at a later stage than most of the grasses 
commonly cultivated here. The common opinion is 
that its greatest value is at the time, or after, its seed 
is ripe. Our experience does not support this idea. 
We are aware that according to the experiments of 
Sinclair, a.s given in the Hortus Gramineus Woburnen- 
sis, the ripe stems of this grass afforded twice the 
amount of nutriment given by the same quantity taken 
in the flowering stage. This statement has probably had 
great influence in the minds of farmers in regard to the 
subject. But further researches in chemistry, have 
shown that the experiments of Sinclair are not to be 
relied on for accuracy. His process was described in 
the work just referred to, page 2, as follows: 
“ The grass, in a green or dry state, is submitted to 
the action of hot water till all its soluble parts are ta¬ 
ken up. The liquor is then separated from the woody 
fibre by means of blotting paper; it is then evaporated 
to dryness. The product, or solid matter, is the nutri¬ 
tive matter of the grass.” 
In relation to the experiments of Sinclair, Prof. 
Johnston, in his lectures, remarks that they have lost 
much of their value since it has been satisfactorily as¬ 
certained— 
u 1. That the proportion of soluble matter yielded 
by any species of grass, when made into hay, varies not 
only with the age of the grass when cut, but with the 
soil, the climate, the season, the rapidity of growth, the 
variety of seed sown, and with many other circumstan¬ 
ces which are susceptible of constant variation. 
“ 2. That the animals have the power of digesting 
a greater or less portion of their food which is insoluble 
in water. Even the woody fibre of the hay is not en¬ 
tirely useless as an article of nourishment—experiment 
having shown that the manure often contains less of 
this.insoluble matter than was present in the food con¬ 
sumed. 
“3. That some of the substances which are of the 
greatest importance in the nutrition of animals—such as 
vegetable fibrin, albumen, casein, and legumin—are 
either wholly insoluble in water, or are more or less 
perfectly coagulated and rendered insoluble by boiling 
water. Mr. Sinclair, therefore, must have left behind, 
among the insoluble parts of his hay, the greater pro¬ 
portion of these important substances. Hence the na¬ 
ture and weight of the dry extracts he obtained could 
not fairly represent either the kind or quantity of the 
nutritive matters which the hay was likely to yield when 
introduced into the stomach of an animal.” 
It is evident that even Mr. Sinclair himself was by 
no means confident as to the correctness of his deductions, 
for in relation to the soluble matter of the grasses being 
taken as denoting accurately their value, he quotes from 
Sir Humphrey Davy, as follows:—“ But still these 
quantities [of soluble matter,] cannot be regarded as 
absolutely denoting their value; albuminous or glutinous 
matters have the characters of animal substances : sugar 
is more nourishing and extractive less nourishing than 
than any other principle, composed of carbon, hydrogen, 
and oxygen; certain combinations of these substances, 
likewise, may be more nourishing than others.” 
Upon the whole, therefore, though we should be in 
