356 JUNE. 



to the ground as possible : grass never thrives well 

 that isnotmownquiteclo.se, and the loss in the 

 crop of hay is very considerable ; for one inch at 

 bottom weighs more than several at top. In the 

 making it into hay, you will be a loser, if you have 

 not many hands ready for the work. It should be 

 shaken out directly after the scythe ; wind-rowed, 

 that is, raked into rows, before the evening, shaken 

 out again next morning, and in the afternoon got 

 into grass-cocks: these should be opened the morn- 

 ing following, and got into the great cock by 

 night ; by which time the hay will be well made, 

 if no rain comes; but in case of bad weather the 

 process will be more tedious. If successive rains 

 come, so that the hay is damaged, and you are 

 fearful of its turning out un profitably, by all means 

 salt as you stack it ; a peck strewed in layers on 

 the stack to a load of hay : it will have a very 

 great effect in sweetening, however bad it may be, 

 even to blackness ; and it has been found by expe- 

 riment, that horses and horned cattle will eat da- 

 maged hay salted, which they would not touch 

 without that addition. 

 The following is the process in Middlesex : 

 This branch of the rural arts has, by the farmers 

 of Middlesex, been brought to a degree of perfec- 

 tion altogether unequalled by any other part of the 

 kingdom. The neat husbandry, and superior skill 

 and management that are so much, and justly, ad- 

 mired in the arable farmers of the best cultivated 

 districts, may, with equal justice and propriety, bg 



