The Bossier banner., 1893-10-19
FARMER AND PLANTER,
MAKING HAY.

1t is Formed-The Best Time to Cut
Grass.
The quality of hay must depend pri-
marily on the character of the grass
| from which it is formed. No power or
skill of man can make good hay from
| poor varieties of grass. Man can make
the good poor and the poor poorer than
it need be, but he has no methods or
processes by means of which he can
| give to hay good qualities which the
grass did not possess. Though the
highest point of quality which hay can
reach is beyond the power of man to
increase, the degree of excellence which
it will attain is subject to great deal
of modification. In the quality of hay,
as in many other things, there is often
a very wide difference between the pos
sible and the actual. One of the prin-
cipal of the modifying influences is the
time at which the grass is cut. If this
is either too early or too late the best
| quality of hay into which the grass
might have been made can not be Sc
cured.
Some twenty-five or thirty years ago
there was widespread movement in
favor of the early cutting of grass for
hay. Many farmers who had been in
the habit of waiting till the second
week of July before commencing hay
ing in earnest, began to cut their grass
| by June 25. From that time to this
writers in agricultural journals have
been insisting that grass should be cut
early, and as class farmers have fol-
lowed their advice. AS compared with
very late cutting the moderately
early cutting of grass for hay is un-
doubtedly beneficial. If grass stands
too late much of the nutritive matter
Is formed into seeds. Quite proper
tion of these seeds are shelled in the
field or in the now, destroyed by mice,
or fail to be digested by the animals
| which eat them. The stems become
woody and comparatively innutritious
and unpalatable, and many of the
leaves are broken off and lost. In these
ways much of the valua BILE feeding ma
terial of the plant is lost.
But while very late cutting involves
losses, it is possible to go to extremes
in the other direction and to lose still
more by too early cutting than would
be lost if the grass stood too long.
The writer knew a man who for
some years managed farm belonging
to town, and whose ideas regarding
the early cutting of grass for hay were
quite advanced. This man always fin
ished haying much earlier than his
neighbors who had farms of equal
size-and he always had good deal
| less hay.
sSVhat was of more Importance than
the comparison of the quality of hay
secured by himself and the neighbor-
| ing farmers was the fact that while
under his care the farm did not yield
nearly as much hay as it did before he
| took charge of it, or as it has produced
since he went away.
The advocates of the very early cut
ting of grass for hay assert that,
though less Quantity is obtained, the
| quality is so greatly superior that the
value of the crop for feeding purposes
is increased. This theory was not sub
| stantiated by the results on the farm
| just mentioned.
During the years in which the grass
was cut so early the farm did not sup
port more than three-fourths as much
stock as it had previously done and
has done since another manager was
secured. The idea which many hold
that If the first crop of hay is gathered
very early the rowen will be so abun-
dant as to make up for any deficiency
which has resulted from this course
was not sustained by the returns from
this farm, and it has been disproved in
so many other instances as to compel
the belief that it is entirely incorrect
| The results of chemical investiga-
ton go to prove that extremely early
cutting of grass is not profitable They
show that the grass plant contains
more nutriment when the seeds are
formed, but before they have become
hard, than it did at any early period.
But they also prove that very late cut
ting is far more economical. AS the
| development of the seed is accompa-
MED by a diminution of the nutritive
materials in the stalk it is evident the
best time for cutting is very soon after
the plants have passed the Towering
stage.
Not only is there gain in quantity
and quality by deferring the cutting of
grass for hay until the plant has well
approached maturity, but there is also
a decided gain in the degree of ease
with which it can be cured and kept
from heating in the NOW or stack. If
cut before it flowers grass contains a
very large proportion of water. and al
together too much time and labor is re-
quired to dry it enough SO it can be
safely stored.
Unless special precautions are taken
there will always be risk of heating if
the grass is cut before it has made its
full growth. In a choice of evils it is
better the quality should be injured a
little by allowing the grass to stand
too long than it is to have it injured a
great deal by heating and molding in
| the barn.
Owing to the difference in the char
acter of the soil, or to the fact that