874 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



gypsum has been particularly recommended as a top-dressing for clovers, and tlie otiier 

 herbage legumes ; because as their ashes afford that substance in considerable quantities, 

 it appears to be a necessary ingredient of their food. Dutch ashes (427.) have been 

 strongly recommended as a top-dressing for red clover, and they also contain gypsum ; 

 but where the soil is in good heart, and contains calcareous matter, any description of top- 

 dressing, though it may be of advantage when it does not interfere with the general 

 economy of the farm, cannot be considered necessary. (Supp. E. Brit. art. A<i,r.) 



5541. Tlie taking of the clover, or clover and rye-grass crop, is either by cutting green 

 for soiling, by making into hay, or by pasturing. It is observed in Tlie Code of Agri- 

 culture, that it is a most important point to ascertain in what cases cutting, or feeding, is 

 more beneficial. If fed, the land has the advantage of the dung and urine of the pastur- 

 ing stock ; but the dung being dropped in irregular quantities, and in the heat of summer, 

 when it is devoured by insects, loses much of its utility. If the dung arising from the 

 lierbage, whether consumed in soilin'^, or as hay, were applied to the land, in one body, 

 and at the proper season, the operation would be more effectual. The smother of a thick 

 ci-op, continued for any time upon the ground, greatly tends to promote its fertility ; and 

 it has been pretty uniformly found, after repeated trials, upon soils of almost every de- 

 scription, that oats or any other crop taken after clover that has been cut, either for soiling 

 or hay, is superior to the crop taken after clover pastured by sheep. 



5542. Soiling is a term applied to the practice of cutting herbage crops green for feeding or fattening live 

 stock. On all farms, under correct management, a part of this crop is cut green, for the working horses, 

 often for milch cows, and, in some instances, both for growing and fattening cattle. There can be no 

 doubt of the advantages of this practice, in regard to horses and cows; but for young and for fattening 

 beasts, a sufficient number of experiments are not known to have been yet made with any great degree of 

 accuracy. Young animals require exercise in the open air, and, probably, will not be found to thrive so 

 well in houses or fold-yards, during summer, as on pastures; and though in every case there is a great 

 saving of food, the long, woody, and comparatively naked stems of the plants, with leaves always more or 

 less withered, are perhaps not so valuable in the production of beef on fattening stock as a much smaller 

 weight of herbage taken in by pasturage. Milch cows, however, are so impatient of heat and insects, that 

 this way of feeding them, at least for a part of the day, in warm weather, ought to be more generally 

 adopted; and the convenience of having working horses always at hand, besides that they fill their 

 stomachs speedily, is of not less importance than economy. (See Commtmications to the Board of 

 Agriculture, vol. vii. Brown's Treatise on Rural Affiiirs, voL ii. General Rcpoi't of Scotland, vols. ii. 

 and iii.) 



5543. In feeding cattle with green clover, attention must be paid to prevent swelling, or hoving, which 

 is very apt to take place when they are first put on this food, especially if it is wet with rain or dew ; and 

 cattle are exposed to this danger, whether they are sent to depasture the clover, or have it cut and brought 

 home to them ; though, if the plants are somewhat luxuriant, the danger is greater in the former case. 

 After being accustomed to this rich food for a few days, during which it should be given rather sparingly, 

 the danger is much diminished; but it is never safe to allow milch cows, in particular, to eat large quan- 

 tities of wet clover. 



5544. Ttie making herbage plants into hay is a process somewhat different from that of making hay from 

 natural grasses. All the herbage tribe ought to be mown before the seed is formed, and indeed before the 

 plants have fully blossomed, that the full juice and nourishment of the herb may be retained in the hay. 

 By the adoption of this system, the hay is cut in a better season, it can be more easily secured, and it is 

 much more valuable. Nor is the strength of the plant lodged in the seed, which is often lost. The great 

 advantage of converting under-ripe herbage and grass into hay is now beginning to be known, 'there is 

 much more saccharine matter in it, and it is consequently greatly more nutritious. A crop of clover or 

 saintfoin, when cut in the early part of the season, may be ten per cent, lighter than when it is fully ripe ; 

 but the loss is amply counterbalanced, by obtaining an earlier, a more valuable, and more nutritious 

 article ; while the next crop will be proportionably more heavy. The hay made from old herbage which 

 has ripened its seed will carry on stock, but it is only hay from herbage cut when young, and soon aiter 

 it has come into flower, that will fatten them. When the stems of clover become hard and sapless, by being 

 allowed to bring their seeds towards maturity, they are of little more value as provender than an equal 

 quantity of the finer sort of straw of corn. 



5545. The mode of 7naking clover-hai/, and that of ail herbage plants, as practised by the best farm- 

 ers, is as follows : The herbage is cut as close to the ground and in as uniform and perfect a manner as 

 possible with a sharp scythe. The surface having been in the preceding spring freed from stones and 

 well rolled, the stubble after the mower ought to be as short and smooth as a well shaven gras.e-lawn. The 

 part of the stems left by the scythe is not only lost, but the after-growth is neither so vigorous nor so 

 weighty, as when the first cutting is taken as low as possible. 



5546. As soon as the swath or row of cut herbage is thoroughly dry above, it is gently turned over (not 

 tedded or scattered) without breaking it. Sometimes this is done with the hand, or with a small fork ; 

 and some farmers are so anxious to prevent the swath from being broken, that they only permit the use 

 of the rake shaft. The grass, when turned over, in the morning of a dry day, is put into cocks in the 

 afternoon. The mode of performing this is very simple and expeditious ; and none but women, boys, and 

 girls, under the eye of a confidential servant, are usually employed. If the crop is heavy, a row of cocks 

 is placed in the middle ridge of three, and if light of five ridges. A distinct company of carriers and 

 rakers is allotted to every such number of ridges ; and the separate companies proceed each on its own 

 ground, and in the same manner as in reaping grain, which occasions a degree of competition among them 

 for despatch, clean raking, and neat well-built cocks. The carriers gather the hay, and carry it to the 

 ridge where the cock is to be built by one of the most experienced hands. A raker follows the carrier, 

 taking up and bringing to the cocks the remains of the swath. There may be, in general, about five people 

 employed about each row of cocks ; a carrier and raker on each .side of the ridge on which the cocks are 

 placed, and a person on the ridge, who builds them. But when the crop is not weighty, more rakers are 

 required, as a greater space must be gone over. 



5547. As the cocks are thus placed in a line, it is easy to put two or more into one afterwards ; and the 

 larger cocks may be speedily drawn together, to be put into tramp-ricks, by means of ropes thrown round 

 their bottoms, and dragged along by a horse. It is impossible to lay down any rules for the management 

 of hay, after it is put into cocks ; one thing is, however, always attended to, not to shake out, scatter, or 

 expose the hay oftener than is necessary for its preservation. Sometimes the cocks have been put up so 

 large, that they never require to go to a tramp-rick, but are carted to the stack-yard, without ever 

 being broken, and put up in alternate layers with old hay. But where this is attempted, there must not 

 be much clover. The practice of mixing the new with the old hay is, however, a good one, and saves a 

 great deal of time and labour, at the same time that the old hay is much improved by the mixture. 



