MAKE HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES. 343 



milking capacity, and the same relative value will be found for 

 making beef or feeding any farm stock ; and certainly the early 

 cut is much more palatable, being more like green grass. It is 

 also all-important, having cut our crop at the proper time, to 

 cure it in such a manner that it will contain as nearly as possible, 

 as we have indicated before, the same composition as when in 

 a green state. It is difficult to say just how much time will be 

 required to make hay, as it depends entirely upon circum- 

 stances ; but certainly we cannot cure it properly without the 

 aid of the sun. And we all know that some days twenty 

 minutes of sun will dry more than sixty minutes will at other 

 times, although we are under a full sunshine. 



Again, the wind has much to do with the drying process; a 

 north or east wind will not influence the drying of hay much, 

 while a west or south-west wind hastens the drying process very 

 rapidly. While grass remains green after it is cut rain injures 

 it very little, as it has a coating of oily matter which renders it 

 nearly water-proof. But if the rain continues several days and 

 the hay is turned over several times, and becomes broken and 

 bruised, then it is (chemists tell us) the sugar, gum and other 

 soluble matter are liable to be washed out, and the bruised state 

 of the plants admits at least of a partial solution of the various 

 constituents, which Induces fermentation, and during fermenta- 

 tion soluble albumen and sugar are destroyed, two of the most 

 valuable elements of nutrition. 



The old adage, make hay while the sun shines, is as true 

 now as it was in the days of our fathers. We do not cut grass in 

 wet weather if we can avoid it. The practice of carting hay into 

 the barn the same day it is cut saves much anxiety about wet 

 weather. To have the hay all nicely packed away in the barn 

 every night, one can go to sleep and sleep quietly, and if per- 

 chance he is awakened by the sound of distant thunder or rain- 

 drops upon his window, he merely thinks to himself, what a fine 

 thing a little rain will be just now to revive my pastures, and 

 how beautifully green and rich the field I carted hay from yester- 

 day will look in three days ; and again he goes off in sweet 

 sleep and dreams of his hay crop all dry and secure from injury 

 — a happy man ice know. But on the contrary, imagine a farmer 

 with six or eight tons to remain out over night — some in cock, 

 some in winrow, some spread ; as he retires at eve he takes a 



