STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 751 



operation of turning is easily performed, and well repays the 

 labor. When the ground is dry the tedding-machine is set to 

 work, and the turning and drying are repeated. When the 

 weather is at all doubtful we resort to the lap or shake cock, in 

 making which the haymaker gathers up im armful, say 8 to 10 

 lbs. of partly dried grass, and lets it fall lightly on a heap. He 

 then thrusts his hands under the heap, lifts and folds it without 

 pressing, and sets the heap quite lightly on the ground with the 

 end towards the wind : in appearance it is not unlike a lady's 

 muff of large size. It is a common saying, that well made lap- 

 cocks will stand a fortnight's rain free from damage. Without 

 subscribing to this, I have no hesitation in stating, that in no form 

 does partly-dried grass keep so well as in lap-cock. The rain 

 falling on a lap-cock is thrown off in a somewhat similar manner 

 as from an umbrella. I never recollect finding a well-made 

 lap-cock thoroughly wetted. 



By the mode I have described I accelerate the process of hay- 

 making, and it is by no jneans uncommon for me to secure my 

 crop in less than half the time required by my neighbors. On 

 the hay becoming sufficiently dry, it is formed into wind-rows, 

 and then drawn together ,by a sweep into large pikes of about 

 three loads each, with conical tops which are. slightly thatched 

 with straw.* When the pikes have undergone a partial sweat- 

 ing, they are carted away and well intermixed in stacking. This 

 pikeing before stacking, I find quite necessary with my rich 

 quick-grown grass to prevent over-heating. Early in the morn- 

 ings, and at other intervals, when not occupied with hay-making, 

 the men hoe and clean turnips, kc. Though this district is high, 

 and the climate rather wet, yet from 1847 up to the present time, 

 I have succeeded in carrying the whule of each crop in good 

 condition. 



In stating the produce per acre, I give the ascertained weight 

 of a great portion of the first crop, and the whole of the second 

 crop, as weiglied out of tiie pikes. The price of Gd. per stone, or 

 4/. \>er ton, is lower than the average value for a series of yeai'S 



in tliis district : . 



. . . I « «. 



• Thatching the pikes is unnecessary except in a dis'.rict where more than 

 an average fall of rain occurs. — Kd. 



