34 On Hay-making. 



has lain long enough for the under side of the swath to become yellow, 

 (which, were it suffered to lie long, would be the case), particular care 

 should be taken to turn the swaths with the heads of the rakes. In this 

 state, it will cure so much in about two days, as only to require being 

 tedded a few hours, when the weather is fine, previous to its being put 

 together and carried. In this manner, hay may be made and put into 

 the stack at a small expense, and of a moderately good colour ; but 

 the tops arid bottoms of the grass are insufficiently separated by it. 



There are no hay-stacks more neatly formed, nor better secured, 

 than those made in Middlesex. At every vacant time, while the stack 

 is carrying up, the men are employed in pulling it, with their hands, 

 into a proper shape ; and, about a week after it is finished, the whole 

 roof is properly thatched, and then secured from receiving any damage 

 from the wind, by means of a straw rope, extended along the eaves, 

 up the ends, and on each side of the ridge. The ends of the thatch 

 are afterwards cut evenly below the eaves of the stack, just of suffi- 

 cient length for the rain- water to drip quite clear of the hay. When 

 the stack happens to be placed in a situation which may be suspected 

 of being too damp in the winter, a trench, of about six or eight inches 

 deep, is dug round, and nearly close to it, which serves to convey all 

 the water from the spot, and renders it perfectly dry and secure. 



It is of great advantage to the farmer, to give constant personal at- 

 tendance on every party, directing each operation during the whole 

 hay-harvest. The man who would cure his hay in the best manner, 

 and at a moderate expense, must not only urge the persons who make 

 the hay, the men who load the waggons, and those who make the 

 stack, but he should be on the alert, to contrive and point out the 

 manner in which every person may do his labour to the most advan- 

 tage. Unless he does this, one moiety of the people in his hay- field 

 will be of no material use to him ; and if he should be absent for an 

 hour or more, little or nothing will then be done. The farmers of 

 Middlesex engage many hay-makers. Some of them have been 

 known to employ two or three hundred : such men find it neces- 

 sary to be on horseback, and the work-people find them sufficient em- 

 ployment. A man of energy will make the most of every hour, and 

 secure his hay while the sun shines : one of an opposite description, 

 lounges his time away, and suffers his hay to be caught in the rain, by 

 which it is frequently half spoiled. Or if the latter should have the 

 good fortune of a continuance of dry weather, his hay will be a week 

 longer in the field than his neighbour's, and the sap of it dried up by 

 the sun. 



It is supposed that 400 Ib. of grass, on being dried into hay, wastes 

 to 100 Ib. by the time it is laid on the stack ; it is then further redu- 

 ced, by heat and evaporation, in about a month, to perhaps 95 ; and be- 

 tween that and 90 I apprehend it continues through the winter. From 

 the middle of March till September, the operations of trussing and 

 marketing, expose it so much to the sun and wind, as to render it con- 

 siderably lighter, probably 80 : that is, hay which would weigh 90 the 

 instant it is separated from the stack, would waste to 80, (in trussing, 



