SOxMETHING WORTH REMEMBERING. 57 



is no longer permissible. This practice of salting hay was 

 done in the belief that it preserved the badly cured article, 

 and prevented it from moulding or fire-fanging under cover. 

 Such, however, is not the case, as the water of crystallization 

 in the salt, and which appears in the mow, adds to the diffi- 

 culty uf keeping or preserving damp hay. Some of the worst 

 specimens of injured hay that have come under my notice 

 were those upon which salt had been freely deposited in the 

 barn. Weak brine has no preservative action upon hay, and 

 it is astonishing that even the careless observation of the 

 farmers of a former period did not establish this fact : even 

 now many farmers hold on to the delusion, and keep up the 

 bad practice. A little salt thrown upon a mow of hay, 

 regarded as condiment in the food of animals, may not be 

 very objectionable : still it is manifestly better to use salt in 

 more concentrated forms of food, and under conditions where 

 it may be more accurately measured. 



The old error that dung was dung, and of uniform value, 

 no matter from what forms of food it was produced, is now, 

 to a considerable extent, understood and recognized ; but there 

 are many farmers who have not yet learned that manure 

 from run or meadow grasses is not as valuable food for 

 plants as that from the best upland varieties, and it is this 

 class of farmers who have not learned that manure under 

 cover and properly cared for is worth double that exposed to 

 rains and washings at all seasons of the j'ear. 



The new agriculture forbids farmers to allow meadows and 

 lowlands which are suited to reclamation to remain in a 

 wild condition, producing only swale-grasses and worthless 

 bushes. The most profitable expenditure which can be 

 made in husbandry is bringing into good tilth, by ditching 

 and draining, peaty lowlands ; and such are to-day the most 

 valuable and remunerative of our New-England fields. If 

 a farmer has such lands, let liim take hold of them with 

 energy, guided by intelligence. If he completes his haying 

 on any Saturday night in July, let him go with his boys and 

 men into his lowlands early on the succeeding Monday 

 morning, and not allow an idle hour to occur during the dry 

 season, until the work of reclamation is finished. Such lands 

 brought into good tilth are like money at interest, or like a 

 bank which never dishonors a draft. I have had much of 

 8 



