SECRETARY'S REPORT. 115 



are by hay-making rendered more soluble by drenching rains or 

 cold water. In this connection it may be worth while to ask, how 

 these changes in hay-making affect its liability to injury from 

 weathering and rain. 



Of course the sugar and gum will be washed out, and so will the 

 starch in proportion as it has been changed to gum. The action 

 of moisture on starch has already been noticed. The chances are 

 that hay will lose more by a drenching rain than by gaseous exhala- 

 tions. By repeated rains, hay loses twenty per cent, of its nitrogen, 

 and a total loss of thirty-six per cent, of its weight. Of its ash 

 parts, it will give up to cold water about nine-tenths of its potash 

 and soda, one-half to three-fourths of phosphorus, one-third to one- 

 fourth of its lime. Magnesia and silica are also washed out. The 

 practical lesson from all this is, get rid of the moisture of grass as 

 rapidly as is consistent with the aromatic fermentation, then as far 

 as possible exclude air and wet." 



The effect of fermentation in causing changes to take place in 

 vegetable products is forcibly illustrated in the case of several dje- 

 stufFs, as indigo, litmus, woad, &;c., none of which could be obtained 

 from the several vegetables supplying them without the aid of fer- 

 mentation. We know too that the tobacco of commerce does not 

 consist simply of the dried leaves of the plant, but is an article in 

 the manufacture of which a degree of fermentation could not be 

 dispensed Tvith. 



The drying of grass in order to the best product of hay, should 

 be gradual, and conducted with as little direct exposure to the sun's 

 rays as maybe. The proverb, which instructs us to " make hay 

 while the sun shines," has its weak as well as its strong side. The 

 experience of ages has agreed with no controversy whatever, that 

 all medicinal herbs are better dried in the shade, and if so with 

 medicinal herbs, why not equally so with nutritive herbs. This 

 it is true cannot be fully accomplished with the hay crop, but the 

 method of curing in swath and cock is a near approach to it. This 

 method has long been in use for clover, but while more imperatively 

 necessary for this and for coarse rank herdsgrass, it may be adopted 

 with very decided, if not with equal benefit to the great bulk of hay 

 cured. The preferable mode in all cases, is believed to be to let the 

 grass lie as it falls, if cut by the mower, or if a heavy crop and cut 



