164 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 3 



as a fertilizer, is the chief and is the best i<nown; 

 and fortunate la the liind-holder whose soil pro- 

 duces it ahundantly. But tlie process of making 

 hay from it in an economical manner is not gener- 

 ally unilerstood, and it may not he useless to men- 

 tion a liivv leading Ihcts that may serve to simplify 

 the ordinary mode, as practised in too many situa- 

 tions, since hay-maliing is one of the most impor- 

 tant preliminary steps to improvement. When 

 the heads ol' the gra.*s begin to turn brown, and 

 about half the crop has assumed that hue, which 

 occurs in this latitude and elevation between the 

 20th of May and the middle of June, it is gene- 

 rally thought to be in the best condition for cutting. 

 The swarlh should be permitted to lie as cut, to 

 receive the influence of the sun, until towards the 

 approacla of night, when it should be raked to- 

 gether and thrown into small cocks fiom three lo 

 Tburt feet in height. If the vveatlier continues fair 

 it may retnain in this situation three or four days, 

 then be opened and exposed to a day's sun, and 

 collected in cocks again at niuhl, three or four 

 times the size of the first, Most commonly the 

 next day, (or in any event by being spread open 

 to another day's sun,) it will be fit to stack, which 

 can be known by its feeling dry and elastic, like 

 tobacco in good pressing, or (as it is called with 

 us,) "/)»"'sing" order. In this stale the green color 

 is preserved to a great extent, and the smell is as 

 li'agrant as that of the finer kinds of tea. In wet 

 seasons the process is more dilTiculi; but unless the 

 rains are constant, opportunities most commonly 

 occur, to open the grass lonn- enough to have it 

 dried by the sun, which shoidd be done as soon as 

 possible after the sunshine appears, when it may 

 be either cocked again, or stacked, according to its 

 condition. Il'it is sufll^red to remain wet long, it 

 becomes hot, turns black, acquires an offensive 

 emell, in short, runs through the process of putre- 

 factive fermentation, which unfils it for the food of 

 animals. But if lliis process can be checked and 

 the grass got dry enough to put away in bulk, by 

 taking such intervals of fair weather as the season 

 alforiis, stilha good hay may be obtained, althouirh 

 it has been wetted more than once; but by no 

 means as good as if the weather had been uni- 

 formly fair. Some persons reccommend sprinkling 

 salt on the hay when put up, should any damp- 

 ness exist in if, in or.ier to preserve it. I mfinitely 

 prefer putting it away dry, and in our climate that 

 jnay almost always be done. The hay is best 

 which is cured enouirh to house or stack with the 

 least exposure to ihe sun or rain, and a little ex- 

 perience will leach the farmer to avoid the evil of 

 over drying on the one hand, or not drying enough, 

 and thereby incurring the risk ofputreiaction on the 

 other, Clover being a grass with coarse stalks,when 

 stacked in the fields and exposed lo the wealher, 

 it admits more water into the bulk than finer 

 grasses, and consequently much more of the hay 

 is damaged, and rendered unfit for use, than occurs 

 in similar situalions when oiher gra.^ses are used. 

 Where hay is most wanted too. there is generally 

 the greatest deficiency of house-room to receive it; 

 and even where the homestead furnishes that, it is 

 laborious and inconvenient at the busy season 

 of hay-making to haul all the hay in, A simple 

 contrivance in a great degree remedies these incon- 

 .^•niences, and lias been practised on the writer's 

 farm for a number of years with entire success. 

 It merely consists in putting a layer of rye or any 



other long straw, on the clover at every two or 

 three li^et as the grass rises in the process of stack- 

 ing, taking care that the straw projects six or eight 

 inches from the body of the stack, and when it is 

 finished bending the projectinir straw downwards, 

 so as to make it resemble the eaves of a house. 

 If the stack when finished is well capped with 

 straw, these eaves will conduct off nearly all the 

 water that falls on it, and the grass will keep almost 

 as well as that which is sheltered by a house. 

 The quantity usually put in a stack here is about 

 as much as can be drawn by a team with hay- 

 ladders, sixteen leet long, at five or six loads. 



Timothy, (phleum pratense,) the next favorite 

 in central Virginia, does not fiourish well on the 

 eastern side of the Blue Ridge as far south as this, 

 when standing alone. It rarely yields more than 

 two good crops belbre it surrenders the ground to 

 other grasses. But when mixed with red clover 

 it is both more vigorous and more lasting. The 

 impenetrable shade furnished by the clover seems 

 to protect it from the action of the sun, and pre- 

 serves that moisture in the land so congenial to it. 

 'J'here may be other influences also, lor the grasses 

 prefer the neighborhood of each other, and are 

 generally so found in state of nature. Clover ri- 

 pens earlier than timothy, but if they are cut as 

 soon as the latter blooms, a most excellent hay is 

 obtained, the clover not losing much by over- 

 ripeness, whilst its brittleness, and liability to loss 

 in moving, is counteracted by the greater pliability 

 and toughness of the timothy. I think a larger 

 crop can be obtained from the mixed grasses than 

 li-om either singly, and it is certainly easier lo cure 

 the clover in wet seasons when mixed wiih timo- 

 thy, than when alone. The pasturage is much 

 better also than from either singly ; the autumnal 

 growth of the timothy affording good grazing 

 when the clover has dried; and, when the ground 

 is not over-stocked, I have known the pasture to 

 be good in the middle of winter. 



Orchard -grass (dadylis glomerata) is not like- 

 ly to answer well here. It grows fi-eely only on 

 the richest lands, and requires frequent and heavy 

 manuring to keep it up; affording no adequate 

 compensation (or this trouble, as the hay from 

 it is coarse, and by no means as acceptable to 

 horses as clover or timothy. 'Tis true it yields 

 earlier grazing in the spring than the other grass- 

 es, but is not much less injured by it than they 

 are. A few lots for the latter use may be advisa- 

 ble, but it cannot be recommended for the fields. 



There is much land with us that will not bear 

 clover or timothy to any extent, and yields very 

 little from culture of any kind of grain. The 

 soil is generally pale yellow, or inclining to white, 

 when wet, breaking up to a great depth, and when 

 dry almost impenetrable by the plough. The 

 prospects of the cultivators of such lands would 

 be hopeless, if no succulent grass could be pro- 

 duced by them. And there is fortunately one, 

 the herds-grass or fox-tail (alopccurus piaiensisj 

 that seems peculiarly adapted for their use. It 

 grows tall enough to make hay where no other 

 valuable grass would attain that height without 

 manure, and when it cannot be cut for hay, yields 

 pasture. As Uiere is so much of the kind of land 

 here attempted to be designated, sometimes in 

 tracts of several thousand acres, sometimes in 

 quantities varying from one hundred to twenty 

 acres, and l3'ing as if it were dove-tailed into ihe 



