8 MR. NEWHALL*S ADDRESS. 



by a gentleman who stands high in our society, as the successors of 

 Pharaoh's lean kine. The loss of its reputation, as good fodder for 

 cattle has been owing, in my opinion, to its having been fed out be- 

 fore it was fully cured. It was formerly the custom to let our low 

 marsh hay lie in swarth from six to eight days, to make. Recently 

 it has, and I think with more economy, been put up, the weather 

 permitting, in less than half that time, for it is much better to be 

 cured in stacks, than spread upon the marsh, after it is sufficiently 

 dry to keep ; but it requires longer time for making. The low 

 marsh hay is not fully made, until it is six months or a year old. If 

 fed out when green, to cows, the milk will taste of it ; if to working 

 cattle it will weaken them ; but when kept till fully cured, it y^l]] 

 make good butter, and support the ox at the plough. 



As cattle require a portion of salt, and will not thrive well with- 

 out it, the cheapest and easiest way of supplying them is to feed 

 more or less with this hay, which will furnish food with the salt. 

 Every farm, within a reasonable distance, ought to contain a piece of 

 these lands. 



Our marsh lands have been very much improved by ditching ; but 

 the improvement has been attributed to draining, which is generally 

 considered one and the same thing, though very different as respects 

 the effects on salt marshes. By recommending the draining of 

 marshes to improve them, it cannot be expected that those whose 

 lands are already too dry, would think of draining, when, in fact, the 

 high and dryest parts of the marsh are most benefitted by ditch- 

 ing ; — as the ditches are filled, or partly so, twice in twenty four 

 hours by the tide, which cools and moistens the dry parts, and ren- 

 ders them productive, increasing the crops more than four-fold. 



Although we have doubled, if not trebled, our crops of hay, our 

 pastures have deteriorated. Perhaps not more than half the stock 

 is now pastured in the county, certainly not in this section of it, that 

 there was fifty years ago. This diminution of pasturage is attribut- 

 able to various causes. In some parts of the county, portions of the 

 pasture lands have been converted into house lots, gardens, and til- 

 lage. On many of our pastures the ancient oaks and other forest 

 trees, which were reserved by our fathers for shade and ornament, 

 and were the natural defence of the surface against the scorching 

 and exhausting rays of our summer sun, have been removed. 



