146 FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 



other respects they are better. But, where labor is scarce, 

 time is every thing, in * making hay while the sun shines,' 

 and that method, in which it can be made with most expe- 

 dition, ought to be prefered. 



The best plan, therefore, is, for the Farmer to be at his 

 mowing betimes in the morning ; cut down as much as 

 possible by nine or ten o'clock, by which time the dew will 

 be off; then spread the mowed grass evenly, and about 

 twelve turn it over where it lies thick; in the afternoon 

 rake it into winrows, shake it up lightly, that it may be 

 better exposed to the air; towards sundown make it into 

 neat small cocks, and let it remain so a day or two. If it 

 be not then sufficiently dry, shake it out again on a small 

 space of ground, and turn it over till it is dried ; then cock 

 it again, if necessary, and as soon afterwards, as possible, 

 draw it in. 



But, in order to save much trouble in drying hay, the 

 application of from four to eight quarts of salt to the ton is 

 recommended : It is found that hay, thus salted, can be 

 well saved in a much greener state, and at the same time 

 the benefit which the hay derives from the salt is more 

 than fourfold its value. 



The method, also, of having a hole in the middle of large 

 mows, may be found well worth attention, on account of its 

 obviating the necessity of so much labor in drying hay, that 

 is to be stowed away in such mows. 

 See BARN 



General Smith, of Suffolk, makes use of a horserake, for 

 raking on his smooth mowing-grounds, which, with one 

 Man, a Horse, and a Boy to ride the Horse, will gather 

 hay as fast as six Men in the ordinary way. The rake. is 

 about ten feet long; the teeth about two feet; and at right 

 angles from these are some upright slats of the same 

 length, set, at the lower efid, into the piece into which the 

 teeth are morticed, and into another light slender piece at 

 the top. 



The teeth, when in operation, run along the ground 

 nearly horizontally, with the points a little the lowest, so as 

 to run under the hay, and as they take it up the upright 

 slats retain it till the rake is full, when the Man who 

 follows it behind turns it over, and thus empties it in a 

 row; then lifts its over the hay, thus emptied, and sets it 

 in beyond it; and so it proceeds on, till it is again filled) 

 and the same process is again repeated. 



When one strip across the piece is thus raked up, the 

 Horse is turned round, and another strip is raked in the 

 same manner, emptying the hay at the ends of the last 

 heaps raked up, so thai in this way winrows are formed, 



