FORAGE. 59 



according to the wind or other local circumstances at the time. The 

 opposite side may not be affected at all. The outer part is seldom much 

 affected, even on the side to which the heating runs. 



Old hay, as a general rule, is harder than new; but in exceptionally 

 dry and hot seasons, the grasses composing new hay may be so dried, and 

 even burnt up, that from the very first they are as hard and dry as the 

 fibres of old hay. On the other hand, a great deal of mow-burnt hay, 

 whether old or new, will handle quite soft. Again, the climate at the 

 particular time at which the stack is cut and brought to market, will 

 affect the moisture and flexibility of the fibres. The Author has known 

 two-year-old hay in hot damp weather handle and twist as flexibly as 

 grass. Further, a stack of old hay, when first opened and cut and thereby 

 exposed to the air, will often sweat in particular states of the weather, 

 and the hay in the trusses will handle like new hay. After a few days, 

 however, the effect of the renewed sweating will go off, and the hay will 

 again handle hard. 



The weeds often found in hay generally afford valuable information as 

 to its age. The sap remains longer in their strong and coarse fibres 

 than in the more delicate stems of the grasses. 



Of these the Black-head (Centaur ea nigra), No. 29, may be taken as 

 an example. Its stalk, but more especially the pods containing the seed, 

 long retain moisture, and may thereby prove the hay to be new, when 

 the state of the grasses might lead a person to think that it was old. 

 The leaves of the Rib-grass (Plantago lanceolata), No. 28, also afford 

 some indication. In new hay they are brown, soft, and flexible, whilst 

 in old hay they are black and friable, i. e. break and crumble to pieces on 

 the application of friction. These latter indications may, however, be 

 present in new hay after it has heated. 



The degree in which all the above signs respectively exist will ob- 

 viously vary much according to the month in which the examination is 

 made. They must therefore be applied with discrimination. 



These remarks on the distinctive differences between old and new hay 

 may seem at first sight to the reader to be so full of qualifications as to 

 be neither very clear nor explicit. The subject is, in fact, a difficult one, 

 and does not admit of drawing any sharply defined definitions. Apart 

 from a special knowledge of the growth of the year and the preceding 

 year, no rule can be given for distinguishing old from new hay. The 

 Author believes he has laid before the reader all the distinctions, and 

 the necessary qualifications to those distinctions, which exist. The in- 

 tending purchaser must balance one fact or appearance against another ; 

 and with care and practice, and the assistance of the above data, he will 

 probably after a time be able to form a pretty correct opinion. The best 

 means, however, of acquiring a thorough knowledge on this subject is 

 to give up a few mornings to going round a hay market with a respect- 

 able and intelligent salesman. 



98c. New v. old hay, as regards feeding. 

 New hay, as is well known, has a tendency to cause scouring; but in 



