750 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW- YORK 



for quick growth as aftermath is well known, attain a height of 

 three feet in five or six weeks after mowing. 



In addition to this yearly dressing with excrement, I apply 

 guano at the rate of 2 cwt. to each acre. I do this usually in 

 the spring. I have, however, thought that I derived equal, if 

 not greater, benefit from its application in very wet weather in 

 November. The growth during March was sensibly greater than 

 on adjacent land on which the guano was not applied till April; 

 and the main crop of hay was certainly not less than on that 

 dressed in April. 



Mode of Haymaking. — As the process of hay-making differs so 

 much, and is in some districts so inefficiently performed, I ven- 

 ture to describe the method I am using, and to which I give my 

 personal attention. No farm operation requires greater care than 

 securing the hay crop. 



Till lately I deferred mowing the grass till it was in flower. 

 In tlie year 1S56 I cut it before the flowering time. Though this 

 early cut grass shrinks more in the stack, yet I find it weigh pro- 

 portionately heavier. It is not unusual for a square yard cut 

 from the solid part of one of my stacks to weigh 30 stone impe- 

 rial; I have known it exceed .this. The solid part of a small 

 stack of aftermath hay from seven acres of this season's growth 

 weighed 26 stones imperial. I find it of advantage to employ a 

 full complement of haymakers. In traveling through the coun- 

 trj'' I have seen but one haymaker employed .where I should have 

 half a dozen. I find six haymakers, if fully employed, earn their 

 12s. or 14s. for one day far better than a single man would earn 

 the same sum in six days. 



The haymaking or tedding machine has in my practice super- 

 ceded the expensive operation of spreading by hand. When the 

 grass has been spread a sufficient time, the haymakers turn it 

 with their hand-rakes from the sun or wind. At the close of the 

 day the grass or hay is raked together in rows; the space between 

 each row is left quite bare. In this state it remains over night, 

 to prevent the bleaching effects of the falling dew and the moist- 

 ure from the ground. Early in the morning, as soon as the bare 

 ground between the rows is dry, the haymakers turn over the 

 rows, the under side of which, and the ground on which they 

 have laid, are completely wet from checked evaporation. This 



