BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 355 
ment, and is of comparatively little value. The manure of cattle fed 
upon it or littered with it is of inferior quality.’’ 
A few years later a different story begins to be told. Thus Mr. New- 
hall, in addressing the Essex County Society in 1849,* says: ‘* Our 
salt marshes, which have been a reliable source for stock fodder, have 
within a few years been thought less of than formerly. The cattle fed 
upon the hay grown from them have been represented by a gentleman 
who stands high in our society as the successors of Pharaoh’s lean 
kine.”’ 
Upon the Connecticut shore the same opinion prevails. In 1869, Mr. 
Albert Day, in his report as delegate to New London County,} says: 
‘¢ There are thousands of acres of salt marsh all along the southern 
shores of the county, yielding a poor grass that serves for bedding, and 
just pays for cutting.”” And in 1873, the Rev. Mr. Clift, in his lecture 
on Marine Manures,t remarks: ‘‘ From the first settlement of the coun- 
try, it has been a favorite investment with the farmers living back six 
or eight miles from the shore, to have a piece of salt marsh, even if they 
could not get more than an acre, for the purpose of cutting the grass and 
carrying it to their farms. It has been thought until quite recently to 
have considerable value as fodder, but they are losing their faith in it as 
an article of food ; their confidence in it as manure, however, abides, 
It is found that where a salt-hay stack is foddered out, it leaves its mark. 
If the land is turned up and planted with corn, they get very excellent 
corn. The hay is used a good deal for bedding, and is thrown out with 
the rest of the manure into the compost heap, and it is also used for cover- 
ing plants about the garden.” 
One reason for this change of opinion may fairly be attributed to- 
the improved character of the upland hay in New England in late 
years. No doubt but that salt hay was better than it is now, as com- 
_pared with upland hay, in the days when the almost universal custom 
among our farmers was to harvest their hay comparatively late in the 
season, under the belief that there would be great loss from “ shrink- 
age” if the grass were mown before it was “ripe.” There can be 
little question but that the quality of the upland hay harvested in New 
England has been, on the whole, greatly improved since our farmers 
have learned that grass should be cut before its nutritive matters have 
been converted into seeds, and the stalks left mere straw. When put 
in comparison with over-ripe upland hay, the better kinds of salt hay 
were doubtless really excellent. 
* “Transactions Essex Agricultural Society, 1849, pp. 7, 8. 
T In Report of the Sec. Connecticut Board of Agriculture, 1869, p. 894. 
t bid, 1873, pp. 2038, 204. 
