GRASSES FOR PASTURES Al^J) MEADOWS. 79 



are absorbed directly into the cow's system and pass into 

 the milk, and go into the cream and butter — and its con- 

 tents of starch, gum, and sugar. With our favorable 

 climate we do not need this drying apparatus ; we can 

 • gam the same ends without it. We cut the young grass 

 'or clover, leaving it on the ground a few hours only 

 to get rid of the outer moisture and wilt it thoroughly, 

 and then put it up in heaps or cocks, cover it with 

 hay caps made of squares of strong cotton sheeting fifty- 

 four inches wide, and leave it to ferment and heat 

 slightly, which it does naturally. This heat drives off 

 the moisture, and cooks — so to speak — to some extent, the 

 woody fiber, and changes it into starch and gum and 

 sugar, and makes it easily digestible and nutritious. If 

 it does not actually produce these changes, it prepares 

 the fiber for digestion in the stomach of the cow, so that 

 it can there undergo the change by which it is converted 

 into the sugar of the milk and the fat of the cream. Thus 

 it is that the making of hay is really a very important 

 business to the dairyman. It is not only the gathering 

 of a harvest, it is also the performing of a chemical pro- 

 cess by which the crop is improved in quality and is 

 made more digestible and nutritious. And in perform- 

 ing this work, the thoughtful, studious person cannot 

 fail to be interested in the most pleasing and instructive 

 manner as he becomes acquainted with one of the won- 

 ders of nature, and learns how simple- but yet how amaz- 

 ing are the changes wrought in the plant by the force of 

 natural laws which are incomprehensible to him. He 

 knows that these changes occur, but not how they are 

 induced or perfected ; he cannot tell how they are di- 

 rected ; he can understand that they depend upon the 

 wonderful mechanism of vegetable structure, and upon 

 a living principle of which he is entirely ignorant except 

 that it exists. What is this principle ? It is called 

 vegetable life. It exists iu the dry seed and germ ; it 



