HOW WE MADE OUR HAY. 143 



salt upon the mow as you build it. Hard benty hay 

 must be put together soon, in order to heat and clear 

 again. It is fit only for horses and lean cattle : 

 better if even they might be spared its infliction. 



Very hot weather during hay harvest is deceptive ; 

 the grass foxes to be dead sooner than it is ; it is 

 often crisp, and rustles when handled before the sap 

 is sufficiently dissipated. There is a tide in the 

 affairs of hay, which taken at the turn leads on to 

 fortune. You must carry at the fitting moment, or 

 you will suffer. It kicks the beam but once. There 

 is a point beyond which the game-cock cannot be 

 trained — the point of his " athletic weight," to which 

 it takes usually ten days to bring him in skilful 

 hands. From this — the height of his strength, and 

 activity, and courage — he will fall in twenty-four 

 hours. They cannot keep him on this pinnacle of 

 his condition by any means. Even twelve hours will 

 make a great difference for the worse. So, unless 

 you carry hay the moment it is sufficiently made, 

 you will endure a loss on a very hot drying day of 

 not less than fifteen to twenty per cent, in weight 

 and nutritious properties from evaporation. Of the 

 mischief that is going on your nose will inform you. 

 That delicious floating fragrance is a run upon the 

 bank which you must do your best to arrest. The 

 starch, too, the scientific say, by this roasting gets 

 converted into woody fibre. The problem in hay- 

 making is so to hit the mark — a kind of fire-and- 

 water risk — as to dry it only so far that it will awake 

 in the stack, but not exceed a fitting warmth. Hay 

 that has not heated at all is comparatively poor, 



