fatal to the tubers, which are also extensively destroyed by swine, 

 if allowed to run in the pasture. 



2. " That the proper time for mowing timothy is at any time 

 after the process of desiccation has commenced on the stalk, at 

 noted in the third proposition. It is not very essential whether it 

 is performed a week earlier or later, provided it be postponed till 

 that evidence of maturity has become manifested. 



3. " All attempts at close shaving the sward should be avoided 

 while using the scythe, and in gauging the mowing machines, care 

 should be taken to run them so high that they will not cut th 

 timothy below the second joint above the tuber." 



CUTTING. 



Perhaps no invention of agricultural machinery and their name 

 is legion has afforded more positive benefit to the farmer than the 

 introduction of the mowing machine. Before its invention no 

 farmer could, with certainty and success, secure a large amount of 

 hay. It ripens in the hottest of the weather, and at a time when 

 the labor of the country is, as a general thing, all actively employ- 

 ed ; so if a man did get enough, it was at an exhorbitant price, 

 fearfully reducing his profits. Then the grass, if of one crop, all 

 needs cutting at once, so it would be impracticable to save it all in 

 prime condition. 



Another improvement is the horse rake. The first one used was 

 the horizontal rake, that running under the swath heaped it up 

 until the teeth were full, when by a slight lift of the handles it 

 turned over, leaving the hay in windrows. This it did very well, 

 and still does well, bnt another has come into very general use that 

 is a little more extensive, but gives the driver a seat on it, and cer- 

 tainly gathers up the grass cleaner than the other. 



The Tedder is another machine that is used extensively in the 

 Northern States, where the weather is more uncertain than here, 

 and the hay dries much slower than beneath the Southern sun. It 

 is seldom used in Tennessee, and is but seldom necessary. 



CURING. 



This is a point upon which there is as much difference of opinion, 

 perhaps, as on any other point connected with harvesting. Some 

 prefer to let it get dry on the ground Just as it is left by the mower 

 while others cure it in the windrow, and still others cure it in the 



