SECRETARY'S REPORT. 1|X 



The harvesting of hay is one of the most important operations 

 ■which the farmer is called upon to undertake, and requires for its 

 successful accomplishment, great activity and industry, close atten- 

 tion and skillful management. 



Of the time -v^'hen it should be cut, we have already spoken. Of 

 the hight at which it should be cut, it may suffice to say that this 

 should vary according to circumstances. Where the meadow is 

 chiefly of well grown herdsgrass, (Timothy,) and the season hot and 

 dry, it is not deemed safe to cut closer than below the second joint, 

 (see pages 84-85,) but where other grasses chiefly prevail, and 

 especially if the meadows be partially exhausted and the crop light 

 and fine, and the season a moist one, it may well be cut much closer, 

 leaving perhaps as little as may be. Wet meadows or swales, yield- 

 ing what is called "fresh hay," and upland meadows, receiving a 

 top-dressing soon after, may be cut very closely. 



Grass, in its best estate, being universally acknowledged to be 

 unsurpassed for food, and being incapable of preservation on account 

 of the amount of water it contains, the problem in hay-making at 

 first blush would seem to be, how to deprive it of water in the easiest 

 and quickest manner, to an extent sufficient to enable it to be stored 

 with safety ; and the answer which most naturally suggests itself to 

 this is, to expose it as fully as possible to drying winds and sun- 

 shine ; but in practice this method is found to result in a hardening 

 and brittleness of the stalks and leaves, and a loss of sweetness, flavor 

 and aroma. The deprivation of water is not the only point to be 

 considered. In grasses at the proper stage for cutting, we find the 

 nutritive juices to hold much sugar, gum, vegetable albumen, &c., 

 which are capable of undergoing certain spontaneous changes, in 

 regard to the nature of which we are very imperfectly informed. 

 One of these, the process of fermentation, is one of the most obscure 

 of all chemical processes, but happily although science may not yet 

 be able to explain fully all which occurs, practice has not left us 

 ignorant of its results. 



It is a well established fact that a partial sweating of grass is 

 needful in the process of curing, in order to develop and secure the 

 best properties of good hay. It is also important that this should 

 not be violent, but gentle and gradual in its progress, and that it be 



