CUTTING AND CURING HAY. 159 



the greatest stock grower they had in Canada built him a tight 

 barn, and put his hay in the same day he cut it, and he had the 

 fattest cattle of any man in Canada in the spring of the year. I 

 followed his advice. I partitioned off bins in my barn on the 

 hay side and on the scaffold. When I commenced haying I would 

 mow in the forenoon, waiting until the dew was off, and if there 

 was any cut before the dew was off, I had my man turn that hay 

 over about eleven o'clock. I set my horse to raking about two 

 o'clock, and the teams to hauling. I didn't let the hay lie out 

 after four o'clock, or five certainly. One day I cut down eight 

 acres, and hauled it all in the same day. I got all ray hay in 

 about fifteen days. One of my hired men said, " Rideout's hay 

 will be all rotten. In a month you can go on the mow and put a 

 shovel down through it." They had the story about town that 

 Rideout's hay was all spoilt, but I gave myself no uneasiness on 

 that score. I did not cover it with any thing, but I began with 

 one bin and filled that up, treading it as hard as possible ; and on 

 the scaffold side, in the fall of the year, my man got up and pulled 

 out a handfull as black as your hat. He said, "It is spoilt." 

 When I came to feed it, it was as white as any hay — the black- 

 ness was all gone. 



I made a compost heap of ashes in the spring after planting, — 

 a horse load of manure to a horse load of leached ashes — and cov- 

 ered the heap with loam. In August I pitched that over and 

 woi-ked it until perfectly fine, and the next spring 1 put the com- 

 post on that ten acres, and I have mowed the land for five years. 

 Two years ago, one afternoon when it looked likely to storm, I 

 hauled in twenty-two loads of hay and put it into the bays, and 

 trod it as hard as I could. Two of the loads I put on the scaffold 

 over my horses. The hay that I put in the bays was as bright 

 when I fed it out as when I put it in, but that which I put over 

 the horses was not fit to be eaten. 



I have intended, ever since I built my barn, to box up one bin 

 air-tight, and I mean to do it if I live. I think if you build a barn 

 and have every bin boxed up, cut your grass after the dew is off, 

 put the hay in after dinner, and tread it down, it will come out as 

 bright as when you put it in. 



Hay for milch cows should be cut in June ; for working oxen, 

 it may be cut later. 



Mr. White of Bowdoinham. My experience is, that I have not 

 got hay made too much in the field, I want two good sunny days 



