AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 289 



durino" the season for making hay. He must drive his busi- 

 ness instead of being driven by it. Indolence or improper 

 management in hay-time will soon give a sorry complexion 

 to a farmer's affiiirs. A day or two lost or misemployed 

 while the sun shines, and your grass suffers for lack of the 

 scythe and the rake, or your grain is going back into the 

 ground, while the sickle is rusting on a peg behind the door, 

 and its owner is asleep or gone a journey, may be the means 

 of introducing Mr. Deputy Sheriff on your premises, who 

 may do more harm than a crop of thistles or a host of Hes- 

 sian flies. 



It is best, generally speaking, to cut your very heaviest 

 grass first of all, and if it be lodged, or in danger of lodging, 

 or the lower leaves and bottom of the stalks are beginning 

 to turn yellow, although the grass is hardly headed, and ap- 

 pears not to have obtained more than two-thirds of its growth, 

 you had better begin upon it. But when you have help 

 enough, and your grass stands up well, you will do best to 

 wait till the blossom is fully formed, and is beginning to 

 turn brown. Clover is the most critical grass, and requires 

 the most attention. ' In all cases,' says Sir John Sinclair, 

 ' clover ought to be mown before the seed is formed''^ that the 

 full juice and nourishment of the plants 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 is m'lch 

 more valuable. Nor is the strength of the plant lodged in 

 the seed, which is often lost. 



' After being cut, the clover should remain in the swath 

 till it is dried about two-thirds of its thickness. It is then 

 not tedded or strewed, but turned over, either by the hands, 

 or the heads of hay rakes. If turned over in the morning 

 of a dry day, it may be cocked in the evening. The hay is 



* It may not be amiss, however, to state in this place, that agricultu- 

 rists do not altogether agree on this point. In ' Memoirs of the New 

 york Board of Agriculture,' vol. ii. p. 30, it is asserted that ' all the 

 grasses are more nutritions if not mowed until the seed is fully grown. 

 It should not be entirely ripened, however.' The Farmer's Assistant 

 tells us that 'the best time for cutting herd's grass, [timothy] where hut 

 one crop is cut in the season, is when the seeds of the grass are fully 

 formed, but before they have become fully ripe ; but as farmers cannot 

 all cut their hay in a day or two, it is necessary that they should begin 

 before this time, that they may not end too long after it. The same time 

 is al^^o proper for cutting clover ; or rather when a part of the heads be- 

 gin to turn brown. Foul meadow or birdgrass may be cut much later, 

 without being hurt by long standing.' 

 25 



