n4 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



merely to get it dry for winter's use ? or is there some other ob- 

 ject to be gained ? I have stated before what we want of it. It 

 is to make milk, fat, bone and muscle. If our grass is in the right 

 stage to do that, then we should preserve it in as near that con- 

 dition as possible. Let us take another lesson from our good old 

 grand-mothers, and preserve it as they did their herbs, in the 

 shade, thus saving all the nutritive elements contained in it. Yes, 

 but they tied their herbs in small bundles and hung them in the 

 shade ; and we cannot do that with all our hay. Very true ; then 

 let us do the next best thing, and dry it in the sun as little as 

 possible. 



•' Make hay while the sun shines," is an old proverb and seems 

 to be imderstood by many that we must keep our hay opened to the 

 hot sun until it is completely dried up, and that hay cannot be 

 made at any other time. Hay should not be dried but cured. It 

 should not be cut while there is any water upon the stalk, either 

 from dew or rain ; neither should it be permitted to be left more 

 than three or four hours in the hot sun to wilt. As soon as it is 

 fairly wilted it should be put into the cock as soon as possible. 

 And hero let me say, in regard to red clover, that one of its chief 

 items of value, is as a manurial agent; and that is due chiefly to 

 the nitrogen it contains ; and the nitrogen is almost wholly in the 

 leaf and flower ; so that clover dried in the sun until the leaves 

 are brittle ; b^" tlic time it is pitched over three or four times as it 

 must be, it is about as useless for hay as mullein stalks. 



Grass cured with little exposure to drying winds and scorching 

 sunshine is more nutritious than if longer exposed. If over-cured 

 it contains more woody fibre and less nutritious matter. A little 

 sweating in the cock is better than too much exposure to the hot 

 sun ; and the probability is that a little sweating is a benefit 

 rather than a damage. After it is well wilted and in the cock it 

 should not be again opened to the hot sun, as once pitching over 

 will generally cure it sufficiently for housing. Ilay should not be 

 exposed to dews nor wet by showers while in the process of 

 curing. 



Water in wliatover way it is applied, dissolves out the soluble 

 constituents, and leaves little except woody fibre, insipid and in- 

 nutritious, and as unpalatable and indigestible as if left standing 

 until after the "second blossoming." 



And now, Mr. President, let me add in conclusion : If, in any 

 one of these several divisions of my subject, I have made a single 



