258 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 5 



pense than in the old system, under the most fa- 

 vorable circumstances. 



I have also converted the second crop mto hay 

 over the same jjround with equal succes.-^, noUvith- 

 Btanding the bad weather, and all the obstacles 

 incidental to making a second crop of good hay. 



the hay, when it is packmcup in the hay barn, in 

 the proportion of about 16 lbs. to the ton; and, 

 should the hay have been exposed to much vvel 

 weather, a double quantity will be advisable. — 

 Hay has thus been made here, under my direc- 

 tions, for many years, without a single ton of it ever 

 having been spoiled. 



From tlic same. 



ON AN IMPROVED METHOD OP MAKING BIEA- 

 DOW-HAY. 



JBy Mr. John Irving, Farm- Overseer at Close- 

 burn Hall, Dumfries-shire. 



[The Society's Silver Medal was awarded for tliis Essay.] 



It is too much the prevailing opinion in Scot- 

 land, that meadow-hay cannot be secured there 

 as effectually as it is in England. The cause 

 of this prevalent opinion, it is apprehended, is the 

 want of knowledge in the art of making meadow- 

 hay. The usual practice of making every kind 

 of hay in Scotland is, to allow the grass to stand 

 too long before it is mowed, and in the case of 

 meadow-hay until August, when the seeds of the 

 grasses are nearly ripe, and the stalks have lost 

 almost all their succulency ; and to allow the 

 swath to lie for some days till a considerable part 

 of its moisture is evaporated. The cut crop is 

 then shaken out and turned over when it again 1 

 lies lor some days till it is thought sufficiently dry 

 for putting into large cocks. The hay frequently 

 remains in these cocks, in the field, for two or three 

 months. It is then carried and made into a stack, 

 when it is expected that no fermentation will take 

 place, Scotch farmers imagining that fermentation 

 in hay should always be avoided. 



A method of making hay similar to that prac- 

 tised in England has been adopted by C. G. 

 Stuart Menteath, esq., of Closeburn, by whom I 

 have been employed for some years past as farm- 

 overseer. This method practised over an extent 

 of water meadow, (chiefly consisting of peat- 

 moss of 20 fiietin depth, and upwards of 100 im- 

 perial acres in extent,) is to cut the grass as early 

 in July as the weather will permit. The errass 

 mowed in the morning before twelve o'clock, is 

 carefully shaken out upon the ground by hand, and 

 that mowed alter twelve o'clock is allowed to remain 

 in the swath till next morning, when it is likewise 

 shaken out. If the weather is at all dry, the hay 

 that has been shaken out is always put into small 

 cocks for the night, so that the ground may be 

 sooner dry the next morning to receive the hay 

 for its exposure to the sun; and after two dry sun- 

 ny days' exposure, it is frequently, and always 

 upon the third day, carried to the hay-barn, where 

 it undergoes a trifling fermentation, which is a de- 

 sirable process when hay is made with its natural 

 juices. If the weather prove rainy, the hay 

 should remain in the small or hand cocks till a drv 

 day allovv of its being shaken out, and, in the 

 evening, carried to the hay or Dutch barn. This 

 barn is formed of larch poles, set uprio-ht, 15 or 

 18 feet in height, including a space of Is feet in 

 breadth and 60 in length, and supporting a light 

 roof of thin boards, or a slifrht covering of straw 

 stitched upon the rafters. No person who expects 

 to have good meadow-hay should be without such 

 a Dutch barn. Salt is generally sprinkled amoniTst 



From the same» 



ox MAKING MEADOW-HAY. 



By Patrick Miller, Esq., late of Dalsxmnton, 

 D umfries-shire. 



Making hay is universally allowed to be one 

 of the most important branches of agricultural 

 pursuits, but the principle on which it should be 

 conducted is not at all understood on this side of 

 Tweed. 



In England, however, the operation is very 

 differently performed, and with very different and 

 more satislaciory re.'^ults; for by their system, a 

 great deal of time is saved at a critical period, and 

 afar superior article of food for their animals is 

 produced. 



Besides the great and necessary despatch ivhich 

 is used in England, much skill is also employed 

 to produce and maintain a requisite degree of heat 

 or fermentation in the stack, when the hay is put 

 up, in order to convert the juice of the herbage to 

 a saccharine state, which is found to be both more 

 palateable. and likewise more nutritious for all 

 beasiial that is fed upon it. 



In Scotland, on the other hand, it would almost 

 seem as if diligence was employed to unnecessa- 

 rily procrastinate the work, and subject it to the 

 risk of unfiivorable changes of the weather; and 

 by the excessive bleaching and drying of the 

 grass, which is so universally practised, it is de- 

 prived of the piissibility of assuming the saccharine 

 quality; and what sap is permitted to remain in it, 

 is converted to starch, which is neither so agreea- 

 ble nor nourishing for horses, as hay made upon 

 the principle which I am anxious to recommend, 

 and Irom whence arises, as is easily to be per- 

 ceived, a greater waste of hay in Scotch than in 

 English stables. 



Having premised this much, I proceed to detail 

 the practice which I have pursued for many a by- 

 gone year on my farm, which, being on a limited 

 scale, I shall therefore confine my description to 

 the narrow compass of my own operations, but 

 which, of course, easily admits of being extend- 

 ed to a larger field, as circumstances may require. 

 When the hay season arrives and the weather 

 is favorable, and when I perceive, by the height 

 of the column of mercury in the barometer, and 

 likewise from the afjpearance of the skies, that there 

 is a likelihood of its continuing so, I set a couple 

 of mowers to work very early in the morning, 

 each attended by a boy or girl about twelve or 

 thirteen years of age, and, as soon as the men 

 have made half a dozen cuts of the scythe, the 

 two boys or girls take up the swath and shake it 

 out as thin as possible on the ground where it 

 grew, there to lie and wither till after breakfast. 



On the return of the mowers fi-om their break- 

 fast, a stout active woman begins to turn with a 

 rake, in the direction of the sun, the grass which 

 was first shaken out. the men and the boys cutting 



