178 AGRICULTURAL TEXT-BOOK. 



One stands on the wagon, one or two pitch to him, and one 

 rakes the ground. It is not often, however, that the man on 

 the wagon is able to stow it away as rapidly as two can pitch to 

 him. Where hands are scarce, the raker is sometimes dis 

 pensed with, the hay-rake being run over the field wken all is 

 hauled. In changeable weather, no more should be cut in a 

 day than can be well taken care f before night. 



403. If sheds are used, the stowing away is very simple; 

 one man standing on the load pitching, one inside catching and 

 spreading the hay, and one salting and treading down. If 

 stacked, the man on the stack requires experience, which can 

 scarcely be taught by writing, so as to carry it up straight, of 

 proper size and weight all round. An ill-made stack is very 

 apt to fall over, or to let the wet into crevices and cracks. How 

 ever, stacking is very deficient in economy. More or less hay 

 is inevitably spoilt ; and in winter it has either to be carried to 

 to the barn to bo consumed, exposing the remainder to 

 wet, or the cattle, while feeding, are exposed to all vicissitudes of 

 weather, waste much, and manure the ground, immediately 

 around the stack, inordinately. It is calculated that a good 

 shed, adapted for hay above, and for stock beneath, with proper 

 racks, pays its own cost in three seasons, in saving alone. 



404. There is a mode of increasing the yield of grass called 

 Ourneyisrn^ from its discoverer, the Hon. G. Gurney, of Corn 

 wall, England. It consists of covering the field with l tons 

 to the acre of straw, letting this lie for some time, and then 

 raking it off. The grass is then cut or grazed, and the straw 

 a&amp;lt;rain returned. The principle on which this acts is unknown, 

 but every one must have observed that grass covered with 

 straw, or a bush grows more rapidly than when not covered. 

 This mode does not appear to have been much used in Eng 

 land, and probably not at all in America. (See Patent Office 

 jfo?porte,1846,p. 254 J 



405. Irrigation of meadows is of high antiquity; and 



