The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-07-16

loose use of terms. For my own part, /
think that for general purposes, for profit,
grass should stand until the seeds are
formed before cutting. But where one
has heavy clover and wants second crop,
earlier cutting would be more profitable.
The other thing is this: In urging the
formation of horticultural Society, l
think you forget that most of the growers,
especially of small fruits, are not doing
sufficiently large business to warrant
spending much time or money on state
societies. Take our town as a sample
There are some ten or twelve men who
raise strawberries for market. They raise
from one-hslf to one acre each. You can
not expect enthusiasm for state organiza-
ton, although they derive profit from
their crops. The same may be said for
the apple business. We have only one
large orchard in town, yet good many
apples are raised suppose many towns
are like this town, and think you expect
too much and are a little too severe on
the farmers in calling them slow to avail
themselves of state societies. O.
Norwich, Vt.
REMARKS BY AGRICULTURAL EDITOR.
1t is quite true that early " and late I"
are differently understood in regard to
the cutting of grass. But in our article
of June IS, and in previous articles upon
the same topic, we endeavored to make our
own meaning plain. 1t is certainly fact
that when Mr.. Amasa Scott of Craftsbury
speaks of early cut hay he means that
which is cut before the grass is headed
out. But it is only on land in very good
order and heavily seeded that any kind of
swath can be cut in such grass. Yet
MIR. Scott gets more than ton to the
acre off his, at each of three cuttings. For
most of us O's definition, to the effect
that the seed should be formed before
cutting, would cover most farmers notion
of what constitutes early cutting" That
is certainly quite as late as the term will
bear, and would be late cutting for those
who desire to cut in bloom. Hay.seed is
such nuisance on all hoed crops that we
never would have it in our own manure,
and we believe that all who can should
have their mowings rich enough to yield
two tons of hay to the acre when cut in
the blossom. We think, when the ordi-
nary mixture of clover and timothy is the
crop, that this is also the best time to cut
for profit. And on clear timothy we
should not want the seed far enough ad-
vanced to grow.
In reference to Pathological Society,
we believe that small fruit growers would
profit more in proportion from such an
organization than those extensively en-
gagged in the business. The last are gen.
orally old and experienced hands, while
the small growers, at least the majority of
them, are young and need the very infor-
nation which well-organized society is
calculated to bring out. All the expense
of membership and attendance at an
annual meeting, or even two meetings a
year, would not be large in such small
state as Vermont, aud from our own ex-
perience we should say that any one who
expected to sell say 5000 worth of fruit in
a season, would learn enough at such
meetings to make it pay. To thinking
man new ideas are very fruitful, and
single hint is often worth great deal of
money. We were years in finding out
points in strawberry growing, for instance,
which we should have very quickly learned
if we could have met with twenty-five or
thirty of the best growers in the state at
an annual meeting. The Maine Pomolog-
ical Society is admitted to have very
materially increased the profits of fruit
growing in that state, and by mutual
instruction enabled the cultivators of
fruit to command the best market.
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