THE FARMER'S MANUAL. 6'J 



morning when the dew is off, and as soon as the 

 moisture is dried from the bottoms, clear your field 

 as fast as possible ; thus you will secure all the valu- 

 able parts of your clover : viz. the heads and leaves, 

 in full blossom, and as perfect a green as when 

 growing ; and your horses will hold their flesh and 

 do more service on this clover, without grain, than 

 on clover cured in the common method with the usual 

 quantity of grain, and you will readily experience the 

 saving in expense, which, although of importance, 

 will be found to be of minor consideration in this 

 mode of husbandry*. 



A few loads of clover may always be housed in this 

 mode with safety ; but if your fields are large, some 

 precaution will become necessary to guard your mows 

 Against heating, which is not only injurious to the clo- 

 ver, but will prove injurious to your horses, and give 

 them a cough. To prevent both these evils, let your 

 



* If you sow your clover thin, with only 2 or 3 quarts of seed 

 to the acre, (as is the practice of some,) it will be of an inferior quali- 

 ty ; the stalk will grow large and rank, and require more attention 

 in curing ; therefore, never sow less than 5 or 6 quarts to the acre. 

 Whenever your clover has sweat and cured in the cock, so that you 

 can select the largest stalks, and twist them like a string, without 

 their emitting any moisture upon the surface, when twisted, you may 

 then house your clover ; it is^in its most perfect state. If you sow ti- 

 mothy, or herds-grass with your clover, you may manage in this way, 

 for the first year, witH*safety the second year it will become about 

 one half timothy, or herds-grass, and must be spread and turned gent- 

 ly, to preserve as much as possible the heads and leavers of your clo- 

 ver : the third year, your clover will disappear, and the herds-grass 

 must be spread and cured in the common mode ; I say the common 

 mode, for I presume that every farmer spreads his hay into 3 swath 

 winrows ; (unless it be heavy English grass, of 2 or 3 tons to the acre, 

 which will occupy all ihe surface of the field on which it grew, to 

 cure it ;) this saves the expense and trouble of one raking, and that he 

 spreads in the forenoon all the swaths cut before 12 o'clock, (leav- 

 ' ing the swaths cut after 12 o'clock, to conti.ni e in the swath until the 

 dew is off the next morning,) and that he gets into cocks, before 5 or 6 

 o'clock in the afternoon, all the hay spread upon his field. The fer- 

 mentation which hay undergoes by standing in the cock over night, 

 not only sweetens the hay, but prepares it for a more rapid evapo- 

 ration of its juices the next day, and will doubly pay the expense <? 

 cocking, besides the security it affords against bad weather. 



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