CROPS ON DAIRY FARMS. 67 



or less broken or bruised, the cell-walls are crushed, and the 

 sap begins to ooze out and escape, unless the drying pro- 

 ceeds rapidly and the sap is evaporated, sealing up within 

 each stem and leaf of grass the valuable properties it contains ; 

 in wet weather this cannot be done, because there is no evapo- 

 ration, no drying, and during such a time the grass should either 

 not be cut, or not tedded if it is. To bruise the grass in wet 

 weather is to let the sap out and let the rain in, and this soon 

 will injure it alike in quality and condition. But, in fine 

 weather, the grass cannot be stirred about too much ; the object 

 is to bring all of it under the influence of sun and wind, and to 

 have it dry as early as possible. 



Drying Hay in the Rick. 



There is a curious difference in land with reference to the 

 amount of drying which hay requires, and the cause of it is not 

 fully understood. On the limestone soils of Derbyshire it is 

 necessary to dry the hay thoroughly, or it will ferment in the 

 rick to a degree that will greatly injure it, or even expose it to 

 the risk of spontaneous combustion ; a general custom is to put 

 it into (i quiles" of about a ton each, in the field, in order that 

 it may have a preliminary "sweat" in small bulk. On the clay 

 and freestone soils of Staffordshire no such precautions are 

 necessary, and the hay may be ricked in a condition which 

 Derbyshire men think very dangerous. The best and simplest 

 and most economical rick-ventilator is a long, six-inch sapling 

 tree, split or sawn up the middle, and the two halves held 

 four inches apart by narrow strips of wood nailed to each half, 

 say, at three-feet intervals, and let in flush with the edges. A 

 six-inch by two-inch plank, sawn down the middle, will serve. 

 However, in good weather, hay can be made anywhere; it is 

 the uncertainty of the climate that is the bane of our hay- 

 making, and this is the reason why, in the various wet summers 

 we have had in recent times, so much attention has been 

 turned toward ensilage as a system calculated to make us 

 independent of the weather. 



