MIXING 'WITH OLD HAY. 337 



small clover, as the rowen crop, is better than any other 

 kind for calves. Clover- is not good market hay, as it 

 wastes in removal from the barn. Stable-keepers give 

 much more for coarse Timothy, that cannot easily be 

 drawn through a rack." " We mow clover in the fore- 

 noon, and let it lie in the swath, and put it into small 

 cocks in the afternoon," says another farmer. " If the 

 weather be fair on the third day, open it to the air and 

 sun for two or three hours, and then put it into the 

 barn. I have found clover cured in this way keep 

 sweet and free from mould, and of equal value with 

 other hay." Another says : " I have tried three differ- 

 ent ways of curing clover. One was, to make it in the 

 same manner of other grasses ; another, to dry it one 

 day in the swath till wilted, and then pitch it into cocks 

 to stand some days, according to circumstances ; and 

 the third was, to give it one good day's sun, turning it 

 over and getting out the water, and mixing it in the 

 barn with old hay or straw. I managed in this way a 

 year ago, the weather being very ' catching,' cut and 

 dried it as much as possible in one day, and carted it 

 into the barn the same afternoon. I mixed it with some 

 old swale hay that had been left over, placing a layer 

 of old hay, then a layer of clover, building it up in a 

 square mow. My neighbors laughed at me, and said I 

 should burn my barn down by putting in that ' green 

 stuff.' But I must say I never had better clover hay 

 than that. The cattle would eat all the meadow or 

 swale hay, as well as the clover. There was not a par- 

 ticle of smoke about it, on feeding it out. When cured 

 in this way, or by the second method, in the cock, I 

 think clover hay is worth two-thirds as much as good 

 English hay to feed out to farm stock." 



From what has been said in these extracts, which 

 might be multiplied, it appears evident that good 



29 



