HAY AND HAY-MAKING. 155 



gard to clover, without allowing it to be scalded by 

 fierce sunshine. In my dream, the grass is raked and 

 loaded nearly as fast as cut, drawn to the barn-yard, 

 and there pitched upon an endless apron, on which it 

 is carried slowly through a drying-house, heated to 

 some 200 Fahrenheit by steam or by charcoal in a 

 furnace below, somewhat after the manner of a hop- 

 kiln. While passing slowly through this heated 

 atmosphere, the grass is continually forked up and 

 shaken so as to expose every lock of it to the drying 

 heat, until it passes off thereby deprived of its moisture 

 and is precipitated into a mow or upon a stack-bottom 

 at the opposite side ; load after load being pitched upon 

 the apron continuously, and the drying process going 

 steadily forward by night as well as by day, and with- 

 out regard to the weather outside. I do not assert 

 that this vision will ever be realized ; but I have 

 known dreams as wild as this transformed by time 

 and thought into beneficent realities. 



I ask no one to share my dreams or sympathise 

 with their drift and purpose. I only insist that Hay- 

 making, as it is managed all around me, is ruder in 

 its processes and more uncertain in its results than it 

 should or need be. "We cut our grass rapidly and 

 well ; we gather and house it with tolerable efficiency ; 

 but we cure much of it imperfectly and wastefully. 

 The fact that most of it is over-ripe when cut aggra- 

 vates the pernicious effects of its subsequent exposure 

 to dew and rain ; and the net result is damaged fod- 

 der which is at once unpalatable and innutritious. 



