The Kanzas news., 1857-07-18
Agriculture.
From the American Agriculturist.
en- Should Crops be Gathered.


--ss-
From the American Agriculturist.
When Should Crops be Gathered.
The prevailing opinion is, that grass, and
especially grain crops, should not be cut
such is the general practice. This is an err
ror, and one of no little consequence; and
we offer some considerations, which, if un-
derstood, viii, we trust, set this matter in a
clearer light. Let us first look at one or two
lessons plainly told US by chemistry.
Wood, starch, sugar and gum are almost
evactly alike in their composition. The
same elements that, put together in one form,
produce sugar, if arranged in still other
methods, they would produce starch or gum.
To illustrate: suppose four men should each
have 100000 bricks, 1000 bushels of sand,
600 bushels of lime, 10000 feet of lumber,
including beams, boards, shingles, &C., three
hundred pounds of nails, and 100 pounds
of unmixed paints of two or three different
eolors. Now suppose these four men, hav
ing precisely the same amounts of the differ
ent materials or elements, set about putting
up four structures, each having different
object in view. One might construct an ell
egant cottage dwelling, the second a church,
the third barn, and the fourth prison;
and by mixing and applying the paints diff
ferently, each of these structures would diff
fer from the others so much in form and
color, that one might be supposed to be
built of stone, another of brick, third of
iron, and fourth of wood, and outward
appearance, as starch, gum, sugar, and
wood. Either of these buildings might be
taken down, and by simply re-orrangi,ag the
materials, be changed to the form, shape,
and color of one of the other buildings, and
be made Ike it in every particular. Just so
can a pound of wood be changed to pound
of sugar. We have ofren taken a board
weighing pound, and by a chemical pro-
cess re-arranged the elements, and changed
the same board to a pound of sugar. Just
so pound of starch, gum, or sugar, can
be changed to a pound of wood. By ar
tifcial means this change is somewhat ex-
pensive, but in the natural laboratory of the
cells and tubes of plant, it is daily going
on upon large scale, although the elements
are in themselves so small, that the change
is not perceptible to the hnman vision.
We are not stating theories, but absolute
facts. While stalk or grain is unripe it
contains but little woody fibre, and Its pores
or cells are filed 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 abundant
ly 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,
large portion of the starch, gum, and sugar
is changed into woody fibre. If the nat
ural growth of the plant be arrested by cut
ting 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 substan-
ces first named are digestible, nouxishiHg
articles of food, while the fourth-woody
fibre-is comparatively indigestble, and is
on this account little nourishing. Here,
then, is plain reason why all such grasses
and grains, as are designed for food for an
imals, 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 large proportion of
starch, with thin skin, and viii Weld a
large amount of -four but when it is fully
ripe it is covered with thick, har /, woody
of part of its starch. and it win shen
yield much smaller proportion of four
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, dc
Those portions of the grain which are to
be used solely for reproducing the plant
and this is the naturcI design of all seeds
usay be left to ripen atursIly. The woody
coating is designed as protecting covering.
Having thus endeaytfed to state
briefly some of the reasors for cutting grain
early-and it must be interesting TO every
one to understand these IeasonsEwe win
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. AL grasses should be cut 8 soon
as possible after towering Much more
than Is gained In weight after this, Is lost
by the conversion of the nouFishing sub
stances into hard. woody ma ter.
I'd. Corn, wheat. and all other grains de-
signed for food. should be gstherea eight to
twelve days before fully ripe. A simple