188 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 



■weather be fair on the third day, open it to the air and sun for 

 two or three hours and then put it into the barn. 1 have found 

 clover cured in this way keep sweet and free from mould, and 

 of equal value with other hay." Another says: " 1 have tried 

 three different ways of curing clover. One was, to make it in 

 the same manner of other grasses ; another, to dry it one day in 

 the swath till wilted and then pitch it into cocks to stand some 

 days, according to circumstances ; and the third was, to give it 

 one good day's sun, turning it over and getting out the water, 

 and mixing it in the barn with old hay or straw. I managed 

 in this way a year ago, the weatlier being very ' catching,' cut 

 and dried it as much as possible in one day and carted it into 

 tlie barn the same afternoon. I mixed it with some old swale 

 hay that had been left over, placing a layer of old hay then a 

 layer of clover, building it up in a square mow. My neighbors 

 laughed at me and said I should burn my barn down by put- 

 ting in that ' green stuff.' But I mu.'-t say I never had better 

 clover hay than that. The cattle would eat all the meadow, or 

 swale hay, as well as the clover. There was not a particle of 

 smoke about it on feeding it out. When cured in this way or 

 by the second method, in the cock, I think clover hay is worth 

 two-thirds as much as good English hay to feed out to farm 

 stock." 



From what has been said in these extracts, which might be 

 multiplied, did space permit, it appears evident that good farm- 

 ers appreciate the importance of so curing clover as to preserve 

 its tender and succiilent foliage. They are careful not to over- 

 dry it, for fear of loss of the blossoms and the leaves. But it 

 is not uncommon among thriftless farmers, to handle it in such 

 a way that the best parts of it are shaken off and destroyed. 



The method detailed in the last extract, of mixing clover 

 with a poor quality of hay or straw, has sometimes been adopted 

 with great success, the clover imparting its fragrant odor to the 

 hay with which it is brought in contact, greatly improving its 

 quality, while its own value is preserved without injury. It is 

 not only a matter of convenience oftentimes, to have the clover 

 so secured in catching weatlier, but on careful experiment may 

 be found worthy of being more generally practiced. 



The general testimony of practical farmers as to the value of 

 clover hay as compared with that of Timothy and redtop, 



