AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 291 



phrase it, goes round with the sun, in the morning blowing 

 from the south, or east of south, and changing westerly as 

 the sun advances, it generally indicates dry weather. If the 

 wind shifts in a course opposite to the apparent course of 

 the sun, rain commonly succeeds. If the wind continues 

 southerly, and blows briskly through the night, it commonly, 

 as the phrase is, ' blows up rain.' This effect of a south 

 wind in this country may be thus accounted for. A souther- 

 ly wind is a current of air which has its origin in warmer 

 latitudes than those in which we are situated. This current 

 in passing over the ocean imbibes or takes up as much water 

 as air of its temperature can hold in solution. Passing into 

 higher or colder latitudes the air of the current parts with a 

 portion of its heat or caloric, and cannot retain so much 

 water as it held in its outset. Clouds or vapors are there- 

 fore formed, and the excess of moisture is deposited in mist, 

 rain, hail, or snow, according to circumstances, the season, 

 &;c. On the contrary a northerly wind, coming from a com- 

 paratively cold latitude, acquires caloric as it advances, and 

 with that acquisition its capacity for holding water in so- 

 lution is increased. Therefore a northerly wind is a drying 

 wind, and its predominance soon dissipates clouds and intro- 

 duces fair weather. 



But to come down from the clouds to matters more within 

 the reach of the reader. It has been often recommended by 

 writers on agriculture to cart hay, particularly clover, before 

 the stalks are dry, and either to put it up with alternate 

 layers of straw, or to salt it at the rate of from half to one 

 bushel of salt to the ton. 



' Salt hay in this country has usually been hurt by lying 

 too long in the swaths. The method in which I have treated 

 it for several years, is, to cock it the next day after it is cut, 

 and carry it in, without delaying more than one day, and 

 put a layer of some kind of dry straw between load and load 

 of it in the mow, to prevent its taking damage by over-heating. 

 The straw contracts so much of its moisture and saltness, 

 that the cattle will eat it very freely ; and the hay is far 

 better than that made in the common way."^ 



The making of herbage plants [such as clover, lucerne, 

 sainfoin burnet, &c.] into hay, is a process somewhat diffe- 

 rent from that of making hay from natural grasses. As 

 soon as the swath is thoroughly dry above, it is gently turn- 



* Deane's New England Farmer. 



