THE ROWEN CROP. 213 



leaves are roasted immediately after they are gathered, and the 

 whole operation of rolling and drying is speedy ; but in making 

 black tea the leaves are spread in the air for some time after 

 being gathered, and when rolled are exposed again to the air 

 for a few hours in a soft and moist state. It is, therefore, by 

 a lengthened exposure to the air, accompanied by a slight fer- 

 mentation, that the dark color is given to the black teas. 

 Whoever prefers black hay to green can easily tinge his grass 

 with the dark hue by exposing it to the air long enough, and 

 we believe that more hay is damaged by this exposure than 

 by being mowed away in too green a condition. 



We desire to say one word here for the after-math, or rowen 

 crop. This is often spoken of as of little value. We have heard 

 it compared to the foam of sillabub, having no substance in it. 

 It might as well be said that grass has no substance in it. 

 Rowen is simply the green grass preserved for winter use ; 

 and for sheep, calves and milch cows we know no forage 

 equal to it. For horses and oxen, upon whose muscular sys- 

 tem the great tax is laid, we should prefer hay made from more 

 mature grass that furnishes more fibrin. As in summer we 

 turn our cows out to grass, and keep the oxen stall-fed on 

 old hay, so in winter we should feed the milk-giving cows with 

 rowen and the oxen and horses with more mature hay. By 

 cutthig our grass early, before the plant had become exhausted 

 in production of seed, we have been enabled for many years to 

 cut a second crop ; and though the market price of this is always 

 less than for the first crop, yet for feeding to certain kinds of 

 stock we have found it preferable. One great trouble with 

 rowen has been that it came so late in the season as to render 

 the harvesting of it difficult, and much of it has been secured 

 in bad condition ; but with an early hay harvest, the after-math 

 comes earlier, and by curing it mostly in the cock there is little 

 extra labor, and it will prove a very remunerative addition to 

 our stock of forage. 



The storage of hay is another topic to which we desire briefly 

 to call your attention. Shall we put our hay into large tight 

 mows, or into open barns and on loose scaffolds ? If curing 

 and keeping hay is analogous to curing and keeping tea, then 

 the larger and tighter the bays the better will be the hay. We 

 have seen a large and famous barn with a shaft coming down 



