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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



implement or implements— we name no particular 

 one just now, though we shall hereafter— because it has 

 been used before us. "Our fathers did it. Say, are 

 we wiser than they?" It is not philosophy — nay, 

 further, it is not common sense, to keep perpetually 

 striving to improve the construction or the details of 

 an implement (mark here, again, that we refer to no 

 one particularly, but take the question in its broadest 

 phrase) — without, in the first place inquiring whether 

 its principle of operation is or is not the right one. If 

 it is, then go on improving : too much cannot be done 

 in this way. But if it is not — an alternative worthy of 

 consideration, truly — it is (not to mince the matter, but 

 to speak English truth in an English way) but the 

 greatest folly to trouble ourselves further about it. We 

 may improve its details to enable us to do better work 

 of such a class as it can do, than we could do without 

 such improvements. We may get better work thus> 

 but we can never get good. An implement in its 

 principle bad, can simply, from being bad, in no- 

 wise give us good work. We may — nay, we can — im- 

 prove an implement till wo get the very best work of 

 its class ; but with thinking men this is not the ques- 

 tion. The point is, is this the class of work we wantl 

 Now, it seems to us as if at the commencement of the 

 new era of agricultural progress, which we may 

 assume dated from the first meeting of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society, certain implements and modes of 

 procedure were assumed, or tacitly agreed upon as 

 right in principle ; and that which was chiefly wanted 

 was the improvement of their details. This system 

 carried out, resulted in vast improvements being 

 effected, and also in the production of new machines, 

 but all in one way or another connected with the old 

 or the established principles of procedure. This went 

 on for a long time, no active signs being very visible 

 that any one doubted the accuracy of these principles ; 

 or were anxious to inquire whether, after all, we were 

 going in the right way or not. In process of time 

 much real progress had made itself a thing understood ; 

 but certain limits began to appear — limits doubt- 

 less far beyond the boundary line of old 

 practice, till men were prompted to ask why 

 those limits could not be passed, as had been 

 those of the olden times. It was at this stage of pro- 

 gress that men began to agitate the question — so preg- 

 nant with meaning — have those implements and those 

 old modes of procedure the power of enabling us to 

 exceed those limits? The result of the inquiry being by 

 many able men in the negative. Then began the 

 period of the transition time, to which we have already 

 alluded, and which now engrosses the .attention of the 

 thinking man, and claims the interest of the practical 

 agriculturist. • Now, with the fact before us that some 

 able men have broadly asserted that in many things we 

 are going upon the wrong taok — that we shall speedily 

 get to the end of that, if we have not already got so — 

 and that will not be where we want to go — it can, at 

 all events, believing this or not, do us no harm, but 

 will on the contrary do us much good, to inquire 

 " whether those things be so or not ? It will not—at 



least it ought not to— do to say to these obtruders, if 

 obtruders we think them, in the words of Felix to 

 Paul, " Go thy way for this time : when I have a con- 

 venient season I will call for thee." Not a few amongst 

 us deem this the time steadily to inquire what can and 

 ought to be done to set at rest those questions which 

 are now agitating the agricultural world. And apart 

 altogether from this consideration, our readers will not 

 think it amiss at the close of a season, which has shown, 

 more than any preceding it, to what comparative per- 

 fection we have attained under our present system of 

 working, to glance at the principles of the Present, and 

 to endeavour to deduce therefrom considerations which 

 may enable us to have some idea of future agiicultural 

 mechanism. 



EFFECTS OF CLOVER-HAY ON ANIMALS.— Some 

 latti writers have taken the position that clover-hay produces 

 a taost injurious effect on domestic animals, particularly 

 horses ; and that to this cause the great increase of diseased 

 horses is to be attributed. We lately heard a farmer affirm 

 that he believed the iutroductiou of clover-hay into general 

 cultivation the greatest curse yet inflicted on the country, and 

 assigned, as a reason for this singular opinion, its effects on 

 animals when used as a fodder. Late English writers have 

 attributed to this kind of hay the prevalence of hove in 

 horses, and the great increase of other diseases that affect the 

 respiratory organs. This is a most important subject, and 

 should receive a full investigation. Clover is too important a 

 plant to be discarded or condemned, except upon the most 

 satisfactory evidence. Its value as a fertilizer and a prepara- 

 tive for wheat, to say nothing of its use for pasture and hay, 

 would demand that it should not be condemned unheard. 

 For ourselves, we have very little belief in the injurious pro- 

 perties assigned to clover. We have used it constantly for 

 pasture and for hay, more than thirty years, and never, 

 to our knowledge, has any animal suffered from it ; certainly 

 no horse has beea taken with the hove when fed on it, or 

 while in our possession. As hay for sheep, we have consi- 

 dered it unrivalled, and should have no fears that any stock 

 would not winter well with a supply of well-cured clover-hay. 

 And here lies, we think, the great source of objection to 

 clover-hay. It is too often imperfectly cured. To save the 

 leaves and the heads, which are apt to fall in handling or 

 curing, the hay is put into the barn while the large stems are 

 full of moisture or the natural juices, and the fermentation 

 which ensues causes the whole mass to become damp ; and if 

 not spoiled wholly, it becomes mouldy, black, and when used 

 raises such a dust, it is no wonder that horses and cattle are 

 choked or their lungs destroyed. Our experience shows that 

 clover may be perfectly cured without losing any of its valuable 

 parts ; cured so that when fed out, no more dust will be 

 flying than from timothy or herds-grass, and we shall be slow 

 to believe that from such hay any injury to animals ever 

 ensues. — Ohio Valley Farmer. 



