CROPS. 279 



with us. The cocks, or bunches, are never spread or scattered, 

 but sinr.r&amp;gt;ly turned ; and the greatest care is taken that it be not 

 packed away in the stack when wet. It is often in the stack 

 interleaved with straw, which is supposed to answer the double 

 purpose, that of saving the clover from heat and mould, and that 

 of improving the straw for cattle feed, as in this way it imbibes 

 the odor, and perhaps some of the nutritious qualities, of the 

 clover. It was matter of surprise to some farmers, when I in 

 formed them, as I have already remarked, that clover hay, with 

 us, was sometimes mowed in the morning, and carried into the 

 barn in the evening of the same day ; there, being salted Avhen 

 stowed away, with about a peck of salt to a ton, it has kept per 

 fectly well, and come out, in the spring, green and bright, with 

 out mould or smoke. The climate of England would hardly 

 admit of this; and the making of hay, especially in Scotland, 

 is a long process, the haying being often delayed by repeated 

 rains. The hay, in general, on these accounts, seems to me much 

 inferior to the hay with us ; but I was surprised to find it so 

 very much better, even after repeated wettings and dryings, than 

 I supposed it could possibly be. 



Hay, in England, is scarcely ever put in barns. It keeps well 

 in stacks, made up as they are in the neatest manner, and care 

 fully thatched with straw. Nothing can be more beautiful and 

 workmanlike than the manner in which these are made up ; and 

 for hay, the long stacks are decidedly preferable to those of a 

 round form, as it is cut down for use, in such case, to more ad 

 vantage. The formation of a stack, which is often done by 

 women, is a work of much skill, which is the fruit only of prac 

 tice ; the thatching of a stack in the best manner requires both 

 art and experience, and there are men who make it a profes 

 sion. When well executed, the hay remains for years imper 

 vious to wet. During the formation of the stack, which, when 

 intended to be large, must sometimes wait for several days the 

 progress of the hay-making, the most careful farmers have a 

 large tarpaulin or canvass covering, to suspend upon poles over 

 the stack, in order to protect it from rain. I refer to these minute 

 circumstances, to illustrate the extreme carefulness with which 

 many of the operations of husbandry are here conducted. When 

 the hay is to be used, a whole stack is never removed to the 

 stables at once, but it is carefully cut down as a loaf of bread 



