The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-06-18
Haying.

farmers are beginning to cut their grass.
From the middle of June to the first of
August the first crop of grass is being cut
in the meadows of Vermont. On the
cooler slopes and the moister soils the hay
crop, like others, is late, and it would be
absurd to say that all must begin haying
in June. Not only on the naturally late
fields, but upon warmer soils in poor con-
dition, there is almost nothing to cut in
June, and the owner rightly waits for
{" the bottom to thicken up" before going
into it. The impractical theorist will
harp upon the string of early cutting, as
he does upon deep blowing, tile-draining,
root-growing, and various other hobbies,
without any regard to circumstances.
But the practical farmer adapts his work
to his surroundings, and this is not old
fogyism, but practical common-sense. We
cannot all cut our hay in June, and we
cannot always make two crops in season.
In fact, in the present condition of our
farming, the most of us cannot. More
capital must 60 into our land, and much
labor, before the average hay crop of YER
mont, now less than one ton to the acre,
can be made two tons, and still more
before there can be double cutting,
summing up a larger weight still. 1t will
be a revolution indeed when The hay.crop
in New England is doubled, to say moth
ing of the still more important grass crop
in our pastures.
Nevertheless, this question of haying is
worthy of more study and labor than most
of us have yet given it. The profit of
farming comes from the farmers brains,
as much as from his land. Using our
brains, it will not take us long to realize
that the young grass of rich pasture is
the best milk-producing and fattening
feed we have. No hay is equal to it, for
something is changed in the transforms
ton from grass to hay that plainly lessons
its value, let US do the best we may. If
we cut early we lose weight, but if we
cure we'll we do gain in quality, and the
hay is nearer like grass to feed than when
it is allowed to become ripper and harder.
The main point is, do we gain in quality
as much as we lose in weight -? If we do,
there is clearly a profit in early cutting,
because grass cut young starts right up
again, and, even if we do not take sec.
ond crop the same season, the crop of the
next year will be much better on this
account. We have cut over two tons to
the acre for four successive seasons, on
rather thin land, by first seeding without
grain, and then cutting early and not
feeding off the rowen. We have been so
well pleased by the results of such expert.
ments that were we grass farmer, on
light land, that would be our universal
practice. Perhaps when we succeeded in
getting it very rich we would try to make
two crops in a season, but mostly that
kind of hay farming will have to be left
to men who have "natural grass land.
Considering that the lighter soils are SC
much more readily worked, and that what
we lose in grass we can more than make
up in corn and ensilage, we do not Sc,
why light land cannot be made quite al
profitable for dairying as any. But W.
do not want to talk very confidently or
the subject, because we have never farmec
heavy soil, and are not an experienced
dairy farmer.
A writer in the Farmers ReuieU, WHIT
is stock farmer, and claims to have go
over four tons to the acre in two cutting
last year, strongly advocates "cuttinl
grasses of whatever kind designed TO
hay at that stage in which they contain
the largest amount of nutriment, whicl
{ will be appropriated by the stock fe'
d. upon them and assimilated to promot
! growth, fat or the production of milk, be
/. cause the more perfect the assimilation
@ the food furnished stock of any kind Vi
a more profit to the FEEDER" He then goe
h on to speak of the argument that late-cu
hay "spends better" aud, while admittin
i this to be true, he gives it as the reaso
h that it only spends better because tn
{ stock do not like it so we'll, and cons'
i quently will not do so well upon it. Hi
q conclusions are thus expressed:
70 1.-THE facts, plainly stated, seem to b
II that the grasses in their full fowerin
- stage have the elements of nutritio
70 which they contain most evenly distril
q uted through all their parts. When thi
t. stage is passed and the formation Of see
ia commences, the sugar contained in tn
juices in the leaves and stalk is draw
upon and converted into the starch of th
a. seed, the stalk meantime becoming wood
is and parting with its elements Of muir
Ia tion."
r When 1t comes to plants which, lib
Of corn, produce seed large enough to /
le chewed up or ground, he thinks it is pro-
i able that the ripened grain, together wit
r. the stalk mon which IL matured eou