306 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



becomes hard, and woody, and loses a part of its nutritive, as 

 well as palatable quality. Still, if delayed cutting until that 

 time, it is valuable, and should not be lost. Blue grass, white 

 clover, and red-top, if cut before their seeds ripen, make quite a? 

 good cattle hay as timothy. Fowl-meadow, bent, and orchard 

 grasses, make quite tolerable stock hay. As a rule, all grasses 

 should be cut before going out of bloom, and well, but not too 

 much cured. Much hay is spoiled by over drying. When early 

 cut, the hay should be thoroughly wilted, and then thrown into 

 winrow, or cocked, where, according to the weather, it may 

 remain for twenty-four to thirty-six hours. It will then suffi- 

 ciently cure for housing, and the sooner it is put in barn, or stack, 

 or barrack, the better. Later cut hay will cure more readily, 

 and may oftentimes, when cut in the morning, be carried in 

 during the afternoon. The judgment of the farmer must regu- 

 late all this. Salting hay, to assist in the curing, we think of no 

 account, and never practice it, as it does little to preserve green 

 hay, without putting on so much as to spoil it for fodder. We 

 prefer giving salt to the stock, by itself, at the proper times, than 

 to put it in their hay. Field grown corn fodder, to be at its 

 best, should be cut up and shocked when the grain is fairly 

 glazed, so as to ripen without molding. It is then fresh, succu- 

 lent, and nutritive. Every frost, while standing uncut in the 

 field, injures the stalks as fodder; and although it makes a tol- 

 erable winter forage, when allowing the stock to gather it for 

 themselves, half its nutriment is gone. But, circumstances often 

 compel this practice of so leaving it, and it need not be further 

 discussed. 



WINTER FEEDING, BARNS, AND SHEDS. 



Living in the latitude of 43 north, we believe in barns, and 

 shods, for all kinds of farm stock alike; and so we would if in 

 tho latitude of 37, anywhere, in fact, where snow lies on the 

 ground for three davs at a time, and the Fahrenheit thermometer 



