382 



Making and Curing Hay. — Berhshire Pigs. 



Vol. IV. 



For the Fanners' Cabinet. 

 Making and Curing Hay. 



Mr. Edifnr, — The season has now arrived 

 when the farmer will be required to cut and 

 put away his crops of grain and hay ; his 

 fields are to be unladen of their treasures, 

 and his barns to receive the rich stores which 

 a kind providence has given in return for his 

 labour and skill, and it is to be hoped that 

 his toil and care will be rewarded with an 

 ample harvest. As some notions have sug- 

 gested themselves to me in relation to the 

 making and curing of hay, and as this is the 

 season when they can be made useful, and 

 I have experienced the advantage of their 

 application, I have determined to give them 

 publicity. 



In making hay, I have for several years 

 made it a rule not to spread the grass (except 

 when it is quite ripe) upon the day on which 

 it was mown. In cutting, I found the buts 

 of the grass were generally thrown by the 

 scythe so as to be exposed to the air, and 

 the tops were below or covered by the buts 

 or thicker part of the stems ; I therefore let 

 it lie until the next day, in order to dry the 

 buts as much as possible before spreading. 

 I then have it carefully turned from the bot- 

 tom, and spread after the dew is off and the 

 swarth has become well heated from the ac- 

 tion of the morning sun. If the weather is 

 unfavourable, the grass is allowed to remain 

 in the swarth, and the tops being still cover- 

 ed and entirely green, the swarth will remain 

 exposed to bad weather for several days 

 without taking damage. I therefore con- 

 tinue to cut in cloudy or even rainy weather, 

 and frequently have a large quantity ready 

 to spread when the weather is favourable. 

 I cut when it rains, and ma'ke hay when the 

 sun shines. When the stems of the grass 

 are well wilted and warm from the action of 

 the sun, the tops on being exposed will soon 

 dry — much sooner, as you may suppose, than 

 when the whole is in a green state, in which 

 case, in order to dry the whole mass, it must 

 be subjected to frequent turnings. After 

 spreading, I turn once in the morning, and in 

 the afternoon throw the hay into wind-rows 

 with forks, turning at the same time, and 

 clean up between them with the horse-rake, 

 with which I also clean up after the wagons. 

 I prefer this plan of gathering the hay into 

 wind-rows exclusively with the horse-rake, 

 because it leaves the hay in a looser state 

 for the wind to circulate through it, and is 

 more easily handled when put into heaps or 

 pitched upon the wagons. On the afternoon 

 of the second, or the morning of the third 

 day after cutting, if the weather is fair, my 

 hay is usually fit to be hauled in. In mow- 

 ing away my hay, I have it kept level, well 



trodden and well salted. Salt subserves 

 several useful purposes : it prevents the hay 

 from moulding; the hay need not come in 

 so dry from the field as it is required to be 

 when salt is not used. It retains a better 

 colour, and more of the fragrant and delight- 

 ful aromatic odour, after being thus cured, 

 and is a much more wholesome food for 

 horses and cattle ; besides, / ihink it adds 

 much to the fructifying principle of the ma- 

 nure. As a proof of its value for the food 

 of horses, I will state, that two of my horses 

 died suddenly of colic: I thought they had 

 been killed by botts, butfupon a careful ex- 

 amination of their intestines, I could not 

 discover a single bott or other worm, and I 

 attributed this to the fact, that they had been 

 constantly fed with salted hay — I have never 

 had a horse to complain of botts since I 

 have used it; and I do not doubt that the 

 general health of my horses and cattle has 

 been much promoted by the generous use of 

 salt amongst them, and that their food is 

 rendered much more pleasant to them by a 

 moderate admixture of it. 



In pursuing the method of curing hay 

 which I have above recommended, I have 

 not only saved much labour, but retained 

 and secured all the valuable properties of my 

 hay. As a proof of the superiority of my 

 method, I will state, that a large proportion 

 of my crop has been annually sold in the 

 Philadelphia market for years past. My 

 hay would always find a ready purchaser, no 

 matter how much was in market, and I was 

 always able to obtain for it the highest mar- 

 ket price. K. 



P. S. No liquor allowed in the field or 

 the barn. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Berkshire Pigs. 



Sir, — If the breeders of stock would call 

 on Mr. Benjamin Cooper, near Camden, 

 N. J., they might convince themselves of 

 the truth of the observation, at page 140 of 

 the 4th volume of the Cabinet, " If Bake- 

 well had commenced with dam the best, 

 instead of sire the best, he would have at- 

 tained his object in half the time." 



Mr. Cooper has a pen of spring pigs, one 

 cross with the Berkshire boar and an Eng- 

 lish sow of remarkable proportions, which 

 show more blood and far better points, than 

 many whose pedigree might be high and 

 unexceptionable: indeed, it would be dif- 

 ficult to find more beautiful specimens of 

 that valuable and favourite breed, of pure 

 blood. I trust Mr. Cooper will exhibit these 

 splendid pigs of a sinirle cross, at the coming 

 Philadelphia Agricultural Society's Cattle 



