1868. 



NEW ENGLAM) FARMER. 



41* 



each of the sizes immediately concealed them- 

 selves at the bottom of the glass under a co- 

 coon. This leads me to think that they enter 

 the earth as above conjectured ; hut why they 

 should leave their old suits behind them on the 

 ends of the branches seems a mystery. It is 

 about two weeks since the larvaj were placed in 

 the vessel, and it is now swarming with beau- 

 tiful yellow Hies, in size and shape somewhat 

 similar to the house-fly, a little more slender, 

 with large abdomen, and prepared to deposit 

 an innumerable number of eggs, which they 

 are now fastening upon leaves put in the glass 

 for this purpose. We may therefore suppose 

 that the eggs of the new installment are al- 

 ready upon the foliage, and I am watching 

 daily for their re-appearaauc, which at the 

 farthest will not be longer than a week, as they 

 have been gone from the bushes two weeks ; 

 thus they appear and disappear three times 

 during the season, and each time they come 

 in greater numbers. 



The bushes should not be allowed to touch 

 each other ; if they do, the larvae will continue 

 to eat and grow until they get to be an inch 

 long. They do not in any case leave one bush 

 and creep on the ground to another, but al- 

 ways leave when they reach the top, not being 

 particular about their size or age, if the 

 branches of another bush do not intermingle. 

 I have had many bushes uninjured, with others 

 standing on either side entirely defoliated, 

 when they did not touch each other. — A. J. 

 Caywood, in New York Horticulturist. 



CHEMISTRY OF HAY MAKING. 



The succulent grasses that clothe our fields 

 with verdure are very insignificant vegetable 

 growths in contrast with the forest trees whose 

 huge trunks rise up from the hillside and the 

 plain, and darken, with their dense foliage, 

 unnumbered acres of our fertile lands. In 

 the tiny stalk and leaves of the timothy, clover, 

 red-top, &c., there are rich juices circulating, 

 which have been drawn from the breast of 

 mother earth. These juices are the very pabu- 

 lum of life, and from them, indirectly, we draw 

 our sustenance. If we subject to chemical 

 analysis these grasses, we shall find them to 

 contain all the essential elements of animal 

 growth. But it is not our intention to follow 

 this line of thought, however pleasing or at- 

 tractive it may be. We wish' to make a few 

 brief observations upon the chemistry of cur- 

 ing hay. 



Curing hay is, chemically speaking, a distil- 

 latory or evaporative process. It is doing 

 with succulent vegetable substances, what the 

 salt-maker does with his saline waters, or the 

 sugar-maker with his saccharine juices. The 

 object is to drive off surplus waters, which hold 

 the valuable principles in solution ; to get rid 

 of worthless and interfering substances, and 

 retain all the desirable ones. The sugar- 

 maker may apply too intense heat or direct 



flame to his evaporating pans, and burn or 

 spoil his products ; so the farmer may heat his 

 hay too much in the blazing rays of the sun, 

 and greatly injure the rich nuti'ient principles 

 upon which its value depends. Certain it is, 

 we cannot control all the conditions upon 

 which the production of perfectly cured hay 

 depends ; but we can control them much more 

 decidedly than we do. A ton of well-cured 

 or properly dried hay is worth more in the 

 mow than two tons of that which is cut at an im- 

 proper time and cured in an imperfect manner. 



Grass is not generally cut and cured early 

 enough in the season. The sugar, the gluten, 

 and starch, are in the best condition for pre- 

 serving, before the ripening of the seed com- 

 mences i'he grea' eni^ and aim of plant life 

 is to reproduce itself, — to perfect its seed. The 

 periods of inflorescence and seed-bearing are 

 attended with a large expenditure of costly 

 material. The development of the flower to 

 a blade of timothy, is a very different affair to 

 that of one of the green leaves. The former 

 contributes nothing to the general maintenance 

 of the plant ; the latter is mouth, stomach, and 

 lung. Just previous to flowering, the vegeta- 

 tive power is most active, and large quantities 

 of starch are being stored up ready for use 

 when the pressing occasion arrives to form the 

 seed. A tremendous struggle takes place in 

 the plant, when the nutritive principle is dis- 

 solved by the aid of diastase, and transferred 

 to the seed. As soon as it is over, signs of 

 exhaustion appear, and the plant dies. The 

 time to cut grass is before this culminating 

 point is reached, when the nutritive principle 

 pervades every part of the stalk and leaf. 



Grass is generally dried too much. The 

 ligneous part becomes hard and tough, and 

 animals do not like it any better than we like 

 over-baked bread. The nutritive portions are 

 not so readily eliminated, and the waste is 

 much greater in passing through the assimilat- 

 ing organs. It is not necessary to dry hay so 

 thoroughly, in order to preserve it from putre- 

 factive change in the mow. If the weather is 

 clear and warm, it may safely be stored the 

 same day it is cut, provided it is not cut in the 

 early morning, while loaded with dew. If 

 grass could be mown after the dew is gone, 

 and spread upon a dry parcel of ground, four 

 or five hours' exposure to sun and air will fit 

 it for the barn. All moisture proceeding from 

 dew or rain must be removed. Hay seldom 

 or never spoils from fermentation of its own 

 juices, unless the conditions under which It is 

 stored are extremely unfavorable. The pro- 

 cess of drying or curing in the mow proceeds 

 slowly and advantageously if but a part of the 

 natural moisture is evaporated In the open air. 

 A pound of hay well dried in the mow, is much 

 better than an equal amount dried in the fierce 

 rays of the sun. 



If farmers will observe more carefully, and 

 learn a few simple facts in regard to the im- 

 portant labor of hay-making, they can secure 



