210 ON HAYMAKING. 



fine, throw the cocks open ; but if the weather 

 be wet or threatening, they may remain an- 

 other day, or until the weather is certain to be 

 fine for the day. The cocks should then be 

 thrown, according to the crop, into beds of two 

 or three rows ; and after three or four hours' ex- 

 posure, turned over ; and taking time to gather 

 the whole into wind-rows and cocks before night, 

 let this operation commence accordingly, and 

 none be left open : the day after this, which in 

 fine weather will be the fourth ; the cocks must 

 again remain untouched, or not he opened, whe- 

 ther the weather be wet or dry. On the fifth, or 

 the next dry day, these cocks will only require 

 to be opened for an hour or two, when they will 

 be fit for the stack. The novelty of this mode 

 consists only in suffering the hay to remain in 

 cock the second and third, or alternate days ; 

 and at first sight it may appear that so much 

 time in fine weather must be lost, but this is 

 not the case. Whilst the hay remains in cocks, a 

 slight fermentation, or what is termed sweating, 

 will take place ; and in consequence, after it has 

 been opened on the third and fifth days, it will 

 prove to be just as forward as if it had been 

 worked every day. And the advantages result- 

 ing from tliis, are obviously the following : — by 

 shortening the time of open exposure, the co- 



