SECRETARY'S REPORT. 165 



little later. So far as my observation extends, there is more loss 

 from cutting hay too late than too early, owing to the destruction 

 caused by rust, rather than natui'al ripeness, in some cases ; and in 

 others by the early decay of certain forage plants often mixed with 

 grass. 



The best hight to cut hay is, to shave as snug to the ground as 

 possible, because we get more ; though I think that herdsgrass 

 roots will endure longer, if we leave a high stubble. 



Have used different horse rakes in former years ; like the " inde- 

 pendent" the best; but latterly make less use of one where grass 

 is light, because they scratch up considerable "dirt," leave some 

 of the finest particles of hay behind, and considerable time is neces- 

 sarily consumed in getting the horse from the pasture at a busy 

 season of the day. We now use the hand drag rake on light grass 

 if we are not particularly hurried. If we operated with a mowing 

 machine or a great gang of mowers, we should use the independent 

 horse rake altogether. 



You ask if we use hay caps. We do ; and find the advantage 

 great. For instance : last season, we cocked up a lot of hay on 

 Saturday night and capped it. Sunday forenoon it began to rain, 

 and it continued wet and lowery Ipr five days. On the return of 

 fair weather we found the capped hay bright. Other cocks in the 

 vicinity uncapped, were soaked through and blackened, so that it 

 was not worth half price. Good hay was worth here last spring, 

 eighty cents per hundred. If an expenditure of twenty-five cents 

 for a hay cap, saved forty cents worth of hay in that one storm, it 

 must be apparent to the most obtuse, that it j5azV7. The cap is 

 simply a square of cotton cloth (fifty-four inches) with a stone in 

 each corner. Have used salt, but am not satisfied that it is advan- 

 tageous in saving the hay. In former years, while living in the 

 vicinity of salt marshes, I have noticed that hay cut thereon, though 

 much Salter than I wish to make my fodder, needed drying to pre" 

 serve it. But my experiments on this point have not been very 

 minute. 



Perhaps the farmer who has a good deal of hay to cut, loses little 

 or nothing by beginning a little before grass has attained its "best 

 estate ;" because such fodder is "loosening" and acts medicinally 

 upon stock ; and if fed out during our long winters, judiciously, 

 proves as valuable as if all the fodder was more matured. And if 

 a portion of his grass has pretty well ripened its heads before he 



