160 BOARD OF AGRICIjLTURE. 



to make hay. I begin in the morning' after breakfast ; sometimes 

 the grass is wet, sometimes not. I mow until noon, and have it 

 spread. I rake after dinner, put it up, and let it sta}^ until next 

 day. After it has got well heated, open it, and soon after get it 

 in. I find, when I can have two good drying days, I can get good 

 hay. 



Mr. Thixg. There is a farm in my neighborhood, one of the 

 best in the county of Kennebec, upon which the hay has been 

 invariablj" cut late. The owner is usually two weeks later than 

 his neighbors, but he has as good hay, and his farm carries as 

 much stock per acre, as .other farms, and his stock looks well. 

 It has been a puzzle to me for a good while, as it conflicts with all 

 my ideas of cutting hay, and I never understood it until last win- 

 ter. There is another farm in the same neighborhood, on which 

 there formerly lived one of the slackest men that ever cursed the 

 profession of farming. The man who owned it died, and I bought 

 it a year ago last summer. For want of sufficient help, it was im- 

 possible for me to touch it until after I got through haying at 

 home, — about two weeks and a half. I then went on, and was 

 surprised at what I saw. The land is of about the same character 

 as mine. That grass, I verily believe, was as green as mine was 

 when I commenced cutting it, more than two weeks before. My 

 theory is, that the man, by being uniformly so late, had made his 

 grass later, and for that reason he cut his hay in as good season 

 as the rest of us. 



In regard to salting hay for the sake of salting stock, you will 

 be altogether likely to get on too much salt, if you undertake to 

 do that, and if you salt your cattle every Sunday morning, or 

 every Monday morning, as is most convenient, more than half of 

 them will get too much salt. Now, I want salt kept by them 

 every day in the pasture, and every night in the barn-yard, and, 

 in the winter all the time, and then they will eat it frequently, 

 but never too much. 



Mr. Martin of Auburn. I agree with my friend, that it is prop- 

 er, when the grass is matured, to cut and put it in as he does, but 

 if you cut it when it is green, as some have said here, (and that is 

 the right time, in my opinion,) you must not do so; it will ruin 

 your hay. What then ? Never cut a spear of grass until the dew 

 is off, then as quick as it is wilted, whether it be in half an hour 

 or two hours, (as quick as the sap ceases to move, it wilts,) rake 

 it up and put it in cocks as quick as possible, let it remain there 



