Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-06-04
Tho Time 20 Cut Hav

April 8, l069.-In the March nuu
+ Der OF your paper you give an il
: teresting article ON the question s
much IN dispute among farmers
"The time 10 cut hay" upon whicl
l beg to offer a few suggestions
You state that on certain meadow
IN our county portion of goo,
uniform crop of timothy was Gu
last summer during the last weel
In June, the grass not quite in ful
bloom; portion of five or sii
weeks later, the hay injured from
over maturity; and portion during
the intermediate space, the worE
being commenced on this last one
| week later than on the portion moi
1 in full bloom. You say further th al
at the time Of writing (probably
February the portion of the
meadow mown in June "has scarce
| ly q living plant upon the whole
space" that in the intermediate
cutting "the stand upon those parts
first cut is very much injured by
the dying out of the plants;" and
that 'the only part of the whole
meadow which now promises q
future crop as good as that of 1868
is the part cut after the plants were
dead ripe" You infer from this
that the immature cutting of the
two frstcut portions of the meadow
caused the destruction in one case,
and the injury in the other, of the
plants subjected to this treatment,
while the mature cutting of the
dead ripe portion was probably the
cause of its exemption from dam
age. 3 -.
Allow me to state some facts
which have come under my obser-
walton, and conflict somewhat with
your facts, and make the deduction
which | think is warranted by a.
consideration of them all. fl.-a
The first fact l have to commu-
nicate is this; l cut my timothy
last year just about the time that
the first of the intermediate cutting
referred to by you was done-com-
mencing according to my farm re-
cords) about the 9Th of July, and
finishing by the 10th, and yet the
meadow, which has been examined
to-day, does not appear to have
been injured at all. Another fact
is this: For few years after the
loss of my negroes | was compelled
to cut my timothy ripper than i
liked, as well as to violate other !
maxims of good husbandry, and
very soon the portion of the field
which is always mown last began
to show disappearance of the tim
othy, and a substitution of blue
grass and weeds. The conflict be-
tween these two classes Of facts can
be reconciled by q theory which
is, l think, fairly deducible from
fact. The drought of last
summer, though it continued for
only one month, July, was charac-
terized by such intense heat of the
sun as to be almost sufficient to
destroy corn growing in good
land. The greatest intensity in the
suns heat occurred about the mids
die of the month, just in time to tell
upon the plants which had already |
experienced the vital shock given
in moving, and when the recupera-
tive power residing in the newly
formed buds in the bulb ofthe plants
was insufficient for such a trial,
and the plants succumbed-those
which had been cut first, and there
fore had been longer exposed to
Ihe effects Of the drought, eRtireIy;l
those which had been exposed for a
shorter time after cutting, an part
while in the case of the dead ripe
cutting in August, the drought was
over before the responsibility of
the life of the plant was
thrown upon the buds in the bulbs,
and after their powers were better
This greater develop
ment Of the buds in the bulbs,
however, did not seem sufficient to
save the plants in my dead ripe
cutting, for many Of them died
where those plants lived which had
been cut earlier Il do not remem-
Der what sort of weather followed
my dead ripe cutting, but if it was
excessively dry, then the drought
would be most disastrous in its eff
fects upon the least loose and fertile
portions of the field, and this is the
portion of my meadow which, in
spite ofthe dead ripe cutting, has suf-
fered most One discrepancy alone
tobe accounted for. The
blossom cutting in the operations |
you refer TO suffered injury where
my blossom. cutting of the same
year escaped You did not de-
scribe the soil and condition as TO |
ability TO Withstand drought of the
meadow you speak of. This should
be known in order to make fair
comparison. My meadow is on the
Beargrass land, in tolerably good
condition. Can you make the ne
cessary explanation |
In addition TO what has been said
from my own experience, | would
say that the hay is large article Of |
export from the North and East, and
is therefore a specially with their
farmers. Those farmers are more
free to communicate their expert
ence through the papers than ours;
and if they have found earl y cutting
destructive to meadows 1t is strange
that they are SO silent about it, and
that with almost one consent they
recommend carly cutting. T. b.
saeSs.--1''s.rts'
p. M. r. Y A N,