170 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Hay caps are coming into general use, and their advantage is 

 beyond question. They protect large quantities of hay from rain, 

 and also hasten the process of making. They are also highly 

 useful to keep the heavy dews from partially made hay. 



In 1850 the number of tuns of hay reported was 66,183. This, 

 at eight dollars per tun, a fair estimate, would be $529,464. The 

 many severely dry seasons experienced during the past ten years, 

 have had much to do with lessening the hay crop of the county, 

 and probably the value of this crop for the present year will not 

 much exceed the above estimate. 



II. By permanent meadows, I mean intervals and low grounds, 

 which produce grass every year without being plowed or seeded. 

 This sub-division also calls for remarks under two heads. 1 — Low 

 meadows. There is scarcelj^ a farm in the county which has not 

 upon some part of it a brook or stream, larger or smaller, the land 

 upon which is second only to river interval for jaroducing grass. 

 In many instances these are not yet cleared of their bushes and 

 weeds, yet where the same class of land has been cleared, it yields 

 a wonderful return of good quality of hay. These meadows are 

 naturally adapted for the growth of grass, and have only to be 

 cleared of their first growth before they come immediately into a 

 bearing state. It is also advisable on those places where brush 

 has been burned off, to sow a mixture of timothy and rcdtop seed, 

 which, in connection with the natural grasses, produces an excel- 

 lent forage for sheep and neat stock. In most cases the herbage 

 of these low meadows is coarser and less nutritious than that of 

 those which lie higher ; and therefore interval or upland hay is 

 preferable as a food for cattle. These meadows woidd be much 

 improved by drainage or ditching, and the quality of hay would 

 be finer, but it is better to have them cleared up and produce only 

 natural herbage, than to have them remain in an unimproved con- 

 dition. Large portions of the very best grass lands in the county 

 are of this class, and are yet unreclaimed, when by bringing them 

 into a suitable state to yield grass, particularly by draining those 

 excessively wet, the hay crop of the county may be doubled in a 

 few years, and that, too, without diminishing other crops. 2 — In- 

 tervals, or rich bottom lands, produce the best grass of any land 

 in the county. Thoy are perhaps not more natural for grass than 

 lower meadows, but it is of a much finer quality. Usually situated 

 80 low as to be llodded each year, they keep up their natural fer- 

 tility without the aid of artificial dressing for years in succession. 



