Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-07-07
Agricultural.
A nit Of Agricultural IHistOry.--MRIs-
fnr Hay "a Modern Practice.

ing Hay n modern I'rnctces
Charles L. Flint is authority for tho rather
surprising statement that the artificial pro-
duotion of nay is entirely of modern origin.
He says that no attention was paid to the Gull
ture of grasses, even in England in the early
part of the seventeenth century. The intro
duction of red clover into England did not
take place till 1888; that Of the white or
Dutch clover not until 100. OF the natural
grasses, our well-known timothy was first
brought into cultivation in this country, and
il was not cultivated in England until the
year 100. The culture of orchard grass was
first introduced into England from Virginia in
1854. There is no evidence of any systematic
or artificial cultivation of grasses there until
the introduction of the perennial rye grass in
1877, and no other variety of grass-seed APP
pears to have been sown for many years-not,
indeed, till the close OF the last century, upon
the introduction of timothy and orchard grass
The Edinburgh Quarterly journal of Agricul-
ture, the highest authority in such matters,
says the practice of sowing grass seed was not
known in Scotland previous to the year 1892
Such being the case in climate so severe as
that of Scotland, it is not at all surprising
that the custom in this country dates back
only about one hundred years The hay crop
has grown up almost entirely within that
time, and, considering the necessity that exists
throughout all the northern portions of our
territory for stall-feeding all stock from three
to six months in the year, it has an impor-
lance here which it cannot have in the south.
To hoe haaY, agerrloJ I,nN 10 ho,r -.
stead of forming a legitimate part of our ma
tional agricultural production, and going to
swell the aggregate of its money value, ought
rather to be regarded as tax imposed by the
severity of the climate-a tax involving a
vast amount of labor and time and money, to
which the farmer in milder ATTITUDES is moi
subjected. There may be shadow of truth
in this view; and yet, like all other apparent
hardships it has its compensatons, as the
history of the northern states abundantly
demonstrates There is scarcely anything
which q person who has become accustomed
to the fine, close carpet of green with which
Nature covers every hillside and every land
scape in our northern regions would dispense
with so reluctantly as the green turf of oui
natural grasses But the greatest compensa
ton to be found is the facility which the pro
duction of grass and hay gives for keeping "
and increasing the fertility of our lands TIL,
system of stall-feeding, for which the max
ing of hay is designed to provide, is the onl,
system by which a constantly-increasing mix
ed husbandry can be sustained and the wan
of it may be assigned as the principal caus
of the exhaustion of southern lands unde
constant tillage. The only substitute for il i
the soiling system, and that is impracticabl
in country where pasturage and browsing
are abundant and cheap.
Statistics of the hay product show that tn
quantity produced has increased rapidly with
in the last 25 years, and the quality, and con
sequently the value, of the hay now made ha
vastly improved over that made half centu
ry ago. great amount of thought and e1
pertinent has been directed to the best meth
DDS of production and curing, while machir
cry has given US a greater control over tn
seasons, enabling us to avoid exposure to tn
exigencies of the weather to greater exten
than was possible at time within tn
memory of many still living.