Book VI. CLOVER FAMILY; 805 



wet, they are soon dried again in gowl weather. As soon as ready, they are put into the summer.rick, or, 

 if very dry, even the winter-stack, but are never opened out or tedded, to make them dry, as they never 

 require it. By this method, not a blade is lost, and the hay is nearly as green as a leaf dried in a book. In 

 a moderate crop, one woman will tipple to one mower, and a woman will rake to two tipplers, or two 

 swathers. But where the crop is strong, it may require three women to keep pace with two mowers. 

 After the hay is put up in this manner, the crop may be considered as secure, though it may continue wet 

 weather for a considerable length of time." [General Report of Scotland^ vol. ii. p. 11.) 



5012. Hay is stacked in circular or oblong stacks, the latter form being most generally- 

 approved of, and carefully thatched, as has been already obsefved in regard to corn. It is 

 never advisable to allow this kind of hay to become heated in any considerable degree, in 

 the stack, though a slight exudation, with a very gentle warmth, is usually perceptible,- 

 both in the field-ricks and in the stacks, for a few days after they are built. But this is 

 a quite different thing from that intentional heating, carried so far, in many instances, as 

 to terminate in conflagration. 



5013. The after-growth or second crop of clover is vigorous or weak, according to the 

 proportion of clover plants to rye-grass, to the time when the first crop was cut, and to 

 the moisture and warmth of the season. When the first cutting has been made early for 

 soiling, there will sometimes be three cuttings in one season. The first of these after- 

 cuttings may be made into hay, and sometimes -the second; but in general, both are con- 

 sumed by soiling or pasturing, unless in some dry warm districts, as Norfolk, and parts 

 of Suffolk, Kent, &c., when the second growth is left to ripen its seed. In the northern 

 counties the second crop is seldom made into hay, owing to the difficulty of getting it 

 thoroughly dried at a late period of summer, when other more urgent operations usually 

 employ all the laborers of a farm. If it be cut for this purpose, the best method of saving 

 it, is to mix it up with straw, which will absorb a part of its juices. It is often cut green, 

 as a part of the soiling system ; or, where a sheep stock is kept, pastured by the old ewes, 

 or other sorts, that are to be fattened the ensuing winter on turnips. 



50H. In consuming clover and other herbage pla7its bi/ pasturing or eating down on 

 the spot, three methods have been adopted, tethering, hurdling, and free pasturage. 



5015. Tethering may be considered a rude practice, and is chiefly confined to the north of Scotland and 

 Ireland. In The Agricultural Report qf Aberdeenshire, it is stated, that there are some cases, where the 

 plan of tethering can be practised with more profit than even soiling. In the neighborhood of Peter- 

 nead, for instance, they tether milch-cows on tfieir grass fields, in a regular and systematic method ; 

 moving each tether forward in a straight line, not above one foot at a time, so as to prevent the cows from 

 treading on the grass that is to be eaten ; care being always taken, to move the tether forward, like a 

 person cutting clover with a scythe, from one end of the field to the other. In this way, a greater num^ 

 ber of cows can be kept, on the same quantity of grass, than by any other plan ; except where it grows 

 high enough to be cut, and given them green in houses. In one instance, the system was carried to great 

 perfection, by a gentleman who kept a few sheep upon longer tethers, following the cows. Sometimes 

 also, he tethered horses afterwards upon the same field, which prevented any possible waste, for the tufts 

 of grass produced by the dung of one species of animal, will be eaten by those of another kind, without 

 reluctance. This system was peculiarly calculated for the cow-feeders in Peterhead; as, from the small- 

 ness of their holdings, they could not affbrd to keep servants to cut, or horses to carry home the grass to 

 their houses, to be consumed in a green state. {Code.) 



501G. In hurdling off clovers or herbage crops, a portion of the field is enclosed by 

 hurdles, in which sheep are confined ; and as the crop is consumed, the pen is changed 

 to a fresh place, until ihe whole is fed off. This practice is very extensively adopted at 

 Holkham, and is peculiarly calculated for light and dry soils. Its advantages are, that 

 the grass is more economically consumed ; that the stock thrive better, having daily a 

 fresh bite ; and that the dung that falls, being more concentrated, is more likely to be 

 of use. 



5017. In the common pasturing of clover, the stock are introduced into the field earlier 

 than in tethering or hurdling, in order to avoid the loss that would be sustained by cattle 

 or sheep treading ad libitum on tall herbage. Indeed, the principal advantage of pas- 

 turing clovers is, that sheep and lambs may be turned on them more early than on com- 

 mon grass-lands. Sometimes this advantage is taken for a month or six weeks, in the 

 beginning of summer, and the field afterwards shut up for a crop of hay ; but more 

 frequently the red clovers are only pastured the second year. When white and yellovr 

 clovers are sown, the herbage is sometimes not mown at all, but pastured for three or more 

 years, and sometimes a little red clover being sown along with these, a crop of hay is taken 

 the first year. 



5018. The produce rf clover-hay, without any mixture of rye-grass, on the best sorts, 

 is from two to three tons per acre, and in this state in the London market it generally 

 sells 20 per cent, higher than meadow-hay, or clover and rye-grass mixed. The weight 

 of hay from clover and rye-grass varies, according to the soil and the season, from 

 one to three tons per English acre, as it is taken from the tramp-ricks ; blit after 

 being stacked, and kept till spring, the weight is found to be diminished 25 or 30 per 

 cent. 



5019. The value of clover and ryc-grnss hny, in comparison with the straw of beans, 

 or pease, may be in the proportion of three to two ; and with the finest straw of corn 

 crops, in the proportion of two to one. One acre of red or broad clover tvill go as far 

 in feeding horses or black cattle, as three or four of natural grass. And when it is s-vx 



3 F 3 



