330 OVER-DRYING HAY. 



grass is exposed to the rain in the process of curing, 

 and lignefaction, or change to woody fibre, takes place 

 to considerable extent, dependent, of course, on the 

 length of time it is exposed to air and light ; so that 

 grass cured with the least exposure to the searching, 

 sifting winds, and the scorching sunshine, is, other 

 things being equal, more nutritious than grass cured 

 slower and longer exposed, however fine the weather 

 may be. In other words, grass over-cured, in the pro- 

 cess of hay-making, contains more useless woody fibre 

 and less nutritive qualities than grass cured more has- 

 tily, and housed before being dried to a crisp. There 

 can be no doubt which of the two would be most pal- 

 atable to the animal. Some loss of nutritive elements 

 must, therefore, take place in the process of curing, 

 however perfect it may be ; and the true art of hay-mak- 

 ing consists in curing the grass just up to the point at 

 which it will do to put it into the barn, and no more, in 

 order to arrest the loss at the earliest possible moment. 

 And this fact of the loss of sugar and starch, or of 

 their transformation into woody fibre, by too long ex- 

 posure to the sun and wind, I think equally well estab- 

 lished as that any transformation at all takes place, and 

 as equally suggestive. 



But on this point far greater difference of opinion 

 exists among practical farmers, some considering one 

 good hay-day sufficient, while others require two, and 

 sometimes three, as if it were not possible to dry it too 

 much. Our practice in this respect is, I believe, better 

 than it used to be twenty years ago. Most farmers now 

 think that grass can be dried too much, as well as too 

 little, and that the injury and loss in the crop is equally 

 great from over-curing as from housing green. A prac- 

 tical farmer says : " One good hay-day is sufficient to 

 dry Timothy, redtop, or wet meadow. I think farmers 



