FORAGK. 57 



horses. Its characteristics are softness, absence of stems and flowering 

 heads, and total want of perfume. It consists chiefly of the leaves which 

 grow round the stems of the grasses. The stems, after being cut in the 

 first crop, do not in general grow again during the summer. Such stems 

 as do grow, lack the firm, bright, healthy appearance of the first crop. 

 The colour of the hay is always dark, and the various fibres and leaves 

 lie in confusion. 



986. Distinction between new and old hay. 



In the stack there is seldom any difficulty in determining whether the 

 hay is old or new. The weather-beaten appearance or otherwise of the 

 outside tells its tale pretty clearly. On a single truss, however, apart 

 from the stack, it is very difficult to form a correct opinion. Some London 

 salesmen, whom the Author has consulted on this point, agree in saying 

 that they form their opinion chiefly, if not entirely, on their knowledge 

 of the peculiarities of the growth of the crop in each year in the district 

 from which the market is supplied. (Hay, we may remind the reader, 

 is always drawn from a not very extensive district round the market. It 

 is too bulky to pay for lengthened carriage, except under extraordinary 

 circumstances.) For instance, the crop of one year may be marked by 

 abundance of herbage, that of another year by absence of that feature ; 

 or that of one year, as in the hot dry season of 1868, may be distinguished 

 by being universally well saved and also scanty in quantity, whilst in 

 another the crops may be all heavy, or in another year the hay on account 

 of prevailing wet weather may be, as a general rule, badly saved. More 

 than one of these peculiarities may be present in a crop, and may serve 

 to distinguish it very easily from the growth of the previous year. It 

 never happens that the growth in two successive years presents exactly 

 the same features. As hay is not kept above two or, at the outside, three 

 years, the difficulty of bearing in mind the peculiarities of each crop 

 during such very limited period is not great. The wine merchant, who 

 recognises by the bouquet the vintages of many years, has a far more 

 difficult task in his trade. The salesmen appear to prefer this method 

 of distinguishing old from new hay to any of the other distinctions, which 

 the Author will presently endeavour to point out, because it is indepen- 

 dent of those changes in colour, smell, softness, dryness, &c., which are 

 caused by the process of heating or fermentation, to which hay in this 

 country is usually subjected. 



At a distance, however, from the district in which the crop is grown, 

 this special knowledge, on which the salesmen seem to rely, would fail. 

 There may have been, for instance, heavy rain in one district at the 

 proper season, and in consequence a heavy crop with abundance of 

 herbage ; whilst the crops in another district, from a difference in 

 weather, may be light. Of late years hay has been brought from great 

 distances, and therefore the above hints are not as safe a guide as they 

 were 50 years ago. 



To aid the general reader, who cannot be expected to possess the above- 



