280 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



might be cut, and always done up and bound in trusses, intended 

 to be of fifty -six pounds each,* and in that way carried to be 

 distributed to the animals. This requires some extra labor ; but 

 the farmers find their account in it. How different this is from 

 the careless and wasteful manner in which things are managed 

 with us, where I have often seen horses and oxen standing knee 

 deep in litter of the very best hay, which has fallen and been 

 tossed out of the mangers ! The consequence of this extraordi 

 nary painstaking is, the most economical management of their 

 products. The animals have a regular allowance, and are not at 

 one time surfeited, and at another time starved ; and not a hand 

 ful of hay is wasted. I have never been quite able to understand 

 the old proverb, that &quot; a penny saved is twopence earned ; &quot; but I 

 quite understand the folly of wasting that which is the product 

 of severe toil and expense, and the immorality of throwing away 

 that which the bounty of Heaven bestows for the comfort and 

 sustenance of man or beast. I once heard a minister say. in his 

 sermon, that some persons were charitable in spots ; I think, in a 

 similar sense, it may be said that some persons are economical in 

 spots, and that many persons, who will chaffer and haggle half 

 a day to save a sixpence in the price of an article, will often 

 throw away shillings in their neglectful or wasteful use of it. 



The difficulties arising from the humidity of the climate, 

 which the farmers in the north and on the western side of the 

 island have to contend with in curing their hay, are such as to 

 call forth all their energy, patience, and perseverance. I shall 

 best illustrate this by giving an extract from a letter with which 

 I have been favored by the Messrs. Drummond, of Stirling, 

 Scotland, the enterprising founders of an Agricultural Museum, 

 embracing specimens of soils, products, s^eds, implements, ma 

 chines, &c. &c., of an almost endless variety, and the inspection 

 of which is full of instruction, and quite worth a journey of hun 

 dreds of miles. 



&quot; Rye Grass, or Timothy Hay. For several seasons we have 

 practised a very simple and satisfactory method, which enables 

 us to make hay, not only while the sun shines, but while the 

 rain falls, provided the weather be at all breezy. 



* Trusses of hay, in Smithfield market, are expected to weigh sixty pounds in 

 the early part of the season, and fifty-six pounds after Christmas. 



