SECRETARY'S REPORT. 193 



make cows give more and better milk and butter, will put more 

 fat on animals for tlie slaugliter, with four quarts of meal per 

 day, than eight quarts of meal with hay well secured from the 

 first of July to the first of August. That will give the second 

 crop, if you wish, time to grow, and it may be cut the last 

 week in August or the first week in September ; there will then 

 be a crop of fall feed, which most farmers prize <very highly. 

 If you do not wish a second crop, the feed by early mowing is 

 very valuable. On the other hand, if the grass is cut late, the 

 hay is not only poor but the feed is mere nothing. Every 

 farmer of my acquaintance admits that the hay cut early is far 

 superior to that cut late, unless it be those that are in the habit 

 of selling hay ; even that class must lose in the weight of their 

 crop by late cutting. Many buyers have not yet learned the 

 difference between early and late cut hay, when the real differ- 

 ence is, oftentimes, from four to six dollars per ton. Working 

 horses and oxen will keep in better condition with half the 

 grain when fed upon early cut hay ; will look sleek and their 

 eyes will be bright." 



A farmer of Hampshire county says : " My method is to cut 

 with the mowing machine, which leaves the grass perfectly 

 spread. It is turned over between one and two o'clock in the 

 afternoon, and while still warm and before the evening dew 

 falls it is put into cocks. It is spread and turned the next 

 morning, and at one o'clock is ready for the barn. I cannot 

 tell on paper, the precise point of dryness at which hay should 

 be housed, but with my hands, eyes and nose, I can judge when 

 it is dry enough not to hurt in the mow, and not so dry as to 

 crumble or to have lost any more of its virtues than necessary. 

 The less drying the better, if it does not injure in the mow." 

 Another practical farmer says : " I prefer two days, but want to 

 have it lay thick together and stirred often the first day and but 

 little the second. In this way the hay retains more of the 

 juices, smells sweeter, looks greener and the cattle like it much 

 better. Hay should be cured so that it will not heat in the 

 mow and no more." Another says : " Hay may generally be 

 dried enough in one good hay day with proper care, to be left 

 over night in the cock and carried to the barn the next after- 

 noon without spreading. Hay may be dried too much as well 

 as too little." "Timothy and redtop," says a farmer of Berk- 



25* 



