The question when grass ought to be cut, it seems to us, is to be
answered by the purposes to which we mean to put it.
Do we wish it for the seed, or for the stem? Are we anxious to obtain
the greatest weight from an acre? or are we desirous of gaining the
largest amount with the least exhaustion of the soil?
1. If one, regardless of soil, wishes the greatest weight to an acre,
let the grass ripen. It will have become perfectly developed; its
juices will have perfected the solid matter, and less loss will ensue
in curing. But the stem will be comparatively hard, and without
nutriment.
2. Do we desire, without particular regard to economy, the most
nutricious food for animals? The grass should ripen and _only the
upper part of the stem_ and the head should be fed out; for, while the
buts will be hard and juiceless, the grain and husk and neighboring
parts will have received, in a concentrated form, the height of the
plant’s juices. Chemistry has recently shown that plants prepare in
themselves, the fatty matter which is afterward laid on the bones of
the cattle. This fatty substance lies not in the grain, but the husk.
Johnston, the agricultural chemist, says “This fact of the existence
of more fat in the husk than in the inner part of the grain, explains
what often seems inexplicable to the practical man, why bran, namely,
which _appears_ to contain little or no nourishing substance, should
yet fatten pigs and other full grown animals when fed to them in
sufficient quantity, along with their other food.” If for example, a
horse is to be trained, it has long been the _practice_ (though
hitherto the reason was not understood) to give the racers, the
hunter, etc., only the top joint and head of hay. Now the principle on
which a trained horse is fed, is to give the most solid nourishment in
the most compact form—throwing as little unnutricious food as possible
into the stomach consistently with a proper distension of it.
This fact also explains the value of old hay which has been well cured
and well kept. It is known that freshly gathered nuts are not so oily
as those which are old. All seeds perfect their oil after being
thoroughly ripened by keeping. The seed of old hay will be richer in
fatty matter, then, than new.
3. The most palatable hay for cattle is that which is cut before it
ripens its seed. If the farmer has enough grain to feed with, he can
afford to cut his grass early. Its want of nutriment will be made up
by feeding grain, and his stock will relish their food better than if
it had grown hard with age before cutting.
4. _But for general purposes_, grass should be cut when just out of
flower. This is a compromise between the two extremes. It combines the
two advantages of juiciness of stem and richness of grain more nearly
than any other. The stem will be cut while yet in juice, and the seed
will continue to fill and ripen _after it has been cut_. This is well
known in respect to wheat, and the best farmers cut it before it is
dead ripe.
The want of barns to store it, the want of markets in which to sell
it, the want of profit in raising it, and lastly, the want of thrift
in making it, has caused thousands of tons of hay to be most
wretchedly put up—_curing_ as it is sarcastically called; cured,
probably, on the principle of the following story: A physician in
England went out with the gamekeeper to hunt; covey after covey was
started, into which the doctor fired with a strange want of
professional skill, without killing anything. The gamekeeper at length
lost patience, and snatching the gun, said:
“Let me take it, I’ll doctor them.”
“What do you mean, sir, by _doctoring_ them?”
“Why, kill them, to be sure.”
Thus, we think, grass is too often doctored.