No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 183 



color seems to be just on the upper side of outside straw; all green 

 under. 



An hour before hauling in, if convenient, have two men or boys 

 (for two can do this better than one), go along and turn the shocks 

 on their sides, and, commencing at the top (one man being on each 

 side), catch in with a fork, six inches down from the top, and set that 

 laj-er back two or three feet on its edge. Then another layer back 

 against the first one, and so continue until you have done with the 

 shock. The object is to shelter hay from the direct rays of sun, and 

 to allow the hot, dry air to circulate freely through the hay and carry 

 of all surplus moisture. 



Now, the purpose of all this is to show that not only better clover 

 hay can be made in this way than in the old way, but that it can 

 be made cheaper and without the customary worry that attends 

 clover haying time, and to show that the great secret of making 

 clover hay is to cure it in the shade. Avoid the sun as much as pos- 

 sible. 



Better hay; because it is not injured by sun, rain, or dew, and it 

 is not what we understand by the name clover hay — a dry mass of 

 brittle stalks, with the leaves all gone, or a mass of mouldy stuff 

 unfit even for bedding. 



But we do have in this manner of curing, a mass of cured clover, 

 relished by all of our animals, from a bullock to a chicken, and the 

 only diiference I see between clover before it is cut, and clover after 

 being treated in this way, is one is in a green state, the other is in 

 a cured or preserved state. 



Cheaper hay — why? Because you concentrate all your energy and 

 force on one thing at a time. You start your cutter; draft in all the 

 men and boys about the place to help pile up. If it looks like rain, 

 go ahead. If it does rain some, between showers go ahead and get 

 the clover cut and piled; one or two good rains will do the hay no 

 harm while green. Bather it will do good, as it seems to heat up 

 and cure out better. So you can rush the cutting and be ready to 

 put the hay in when it quits raining, and it always has quit, so far. 

 So don't worry about having your hay spoiled. To have this matter 

 of worry lifted off our mind is a great relief. The energy it saps 

 out of a man cannot be estimated in dollars and cents. 



Now, we have tried to show you what we have been doing, and the 

 natural principles we have been trying to discover and work out in 

 making clover hay, and although we feel that we are far short of per- 

 fection, yet we do feel that we are on the right track, and with the 

 aid which we wish to solicit from our learned men in agriculture we 

 hope to arrive at better results in the near future. 



