eS is ae) eS 
BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 347 
It will be noticed that samples Nos. 1 and 2 of the bog hay that 
were collected by hand in the month of June were of distinctly better 
quality than the samples Nos. 3 and 4, taken from farm barns, which 
had been mown later in the season. Nos. 3 and 4 were of course much 
better than the specimen taken in the month of December, from a 
tuft in the field, where it had been exposed to the frost and storms of 
autumn. The sample of sedge hay analyzed at New Haven was 
probably mown earlier than the samples 3 and 4 of the above list. For 
the comparison of all these samples, see the general table beyond. It 
is to be noted that not a single one of the five specimens of hay from 
sedge here examined was obtained under the best possible condi- 
tions. Even the grass from which the best hay of all (No. 1) was pre- 
pared, was over-ripe when cut, as has been already stated on page 344. 
It is to be remembered that most sedges blossom very early,* even 
earlier than the greater part of ‘the true grasses. But, in order to 
obtain good nutritious hay from any grass or grain, the crop should not 
be mown later than the time of flowering. Hence the common prac- 
tice of curing sedge hay in July or August is plainly improper, in so 
far as concerns the chemistry of the question. It is obvious that a 
decided improvement in the character of bog hay might be brought 
about by the exercise of a little discretion, if the condition of the low 
land upon which the sedges grow, and the press of other farm work, 
would but permit the mower to cut them at an appropriate season. 344. 
experimentally at some future time, with the view of determining how large a 
correction should be applied by our farmers, on account of this difference of 
moisture, to tables of the fodder value of forage that have been compiled in the 
interest of European farmers, on the basis of the 14 or 15% of water which is 
there found in hay. It may perhaps be found best, eventually, to give in the 
tables of fodder value, only the composition of the anhydrous hays, with the 
understanding that in respect to the item ‘‘ water” a special correction shall be 
applied for each particular country or climate, according to the mean monthly 
or yearly humidity of the air in that locality. 
Since the foregoing paragraph was written, an estimation of the amount of 
moisture contained in a fair sample of timothy hay has been made in the Bussey 
laboratory, with the result that the hay lost only 7.80 % of its weight on being 
dried at 110° C. This sample of timothy was taken from a barn at Rochester, 
Mass., in March, 1875, and was subsequently exposed during a couple of days 
before weighing, in a cold loft at the Bussey Institution, at a time that was by 
no means particularly dry. 
* The sedges are “ perennial herbs, chiefly flowering in April or May, fre 
quently growing in wet places, often in dense tufts.” Gray’s ‘ Botany of the 
Northern United States,” article Carex. 
