212 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



crisp and brown as the leaves of autumn, but they were care- 

 fully dried in the garret, and when sufficiently dry, but still 

 retaining the green look and plastic condition of life, were 

 wrapped in papers and stowed in the medicine-chest. We fully 

 believe there is such a thing as drying hay excessively, exposing 

 it to the sun and winds till much of its virtue has escaped into 

 thin air. Every farmer must have noticed the stimulating effect 

 of the aroma of drying hay, which enables him to perform more 

 labor in haying, and with less fatigue, than in any other occupa- 

 tion. He feels as he sticks his pitchfork into a cock of hay that 

 it must come. A man with ordinary muscle feels that he has 

 the strength of Ajax. Raking among the heavy windrows seems 

 to him but play. This stimulating effect we ascribe to a prin- 

 ciple in hay similar to the theine in tea, and to preserve this 

 principle for the benefit of the horses and cattle should be our 

 aim in curing hay. In order to this, hay should be exposed but 

 little to the sun and winds, and dried, as far as possible, in the 

 cock. Of course no good farmer will expose his hay to the dews 

 and rains. The starch, sugar and gum of grass, which are the 

 fat-producing qualities, are all soluble in water, and are wasted 

 by contact with it. The hay-cap is a great improvement, as it 

 not only keeps out the water but keeps in the theine. This 

 stimulating principle, which, for the want of a better name, we 

 call " theine," if it does not contribute directly to building up 

 the animal system, at least acts negatively in preventing the 

 waste of the tissues, acting upon the animal very much as green 

 tea does upon man. The tired washerwoman is refreshed by 

 her cup of tea at noon, and goes to her work after dinner with 

 renewed energy. Beef and bread do not give her so much 

 strength as does her coveted beverage. A toil-worn soldier 

 once said to us as he was sipping his cup of tea of a cold win- 

 ter's morning, " Good green tea sets me up for all day," and 

 we have no doubt good green hay " sets up " the horse for his 

 all-day labor. With many persons hay is hay, no matter whether 

 green or brown, bright or mouldy ; but there is as much differ- 

 ence in hay as in tea. The Chinese tell us that the young, fresh 

 leaves are the most tender and delicate, furnish the most soluble 

 matter, and give the highest flavor, and that the difference be- 

 tween green and black teas does not originate with the shrub, 

 but in the different mode of curing. In making green tea the 



