STABLE MANAGEMENT 229 



brilliant sunshine, but may still be of little feeding value, and 

 horses will not eat it unless forced by hunger. The reason is 

 that it was so withered by the sun that there was not sufficient 

 juice left in it to make it sweat properly, and it wiJl feel 

 quite soft to the touch instead of being crisp. To " make 

 hay while the sun shines " is one of the wisest saws in 

 farming, but in this, as in everything else, one may have 

 too much of a good thing. 



This is the more likely to occur when the grass is left so 

 long before it is cut that it has ceased flowering, and the 

 process of forming woody fibre has commenced, when the 

 hay is practically half spoiled before it is even cut. Ill- 

 advised farmers sometimes do this, thinking thereby to 

 increase the quantity, not realising that grass, like 

 ordinary plants, grows no more as soon as it flowers. 

 Others do it to save labour, for it does not take so much 

 time and trouble as when the grasses are full of sap ; but it 

 is in this latter condition that the primest hay is made, for 

 all the sappy portions then properly ferment, the saccharine 

 matter is formed, and hay gains that sweet perfume so 

 characteristic of it when first-rate. 



All the different grasses flower in due succession, it 

 making no difference whether the season is early or late. 

 The time to catch the grasses at their best is when the early 

 ones have ceased flowering but have not yet turned into 

 woody fibre, while the bulk of the rest are in flower, and 

 therefore will not grow any more, and only very few remain 

 which have not yet bloomed. The most favourable time to 

 cut the grass is when the crested dogstail is in full flower, 

 and as a kind of "patent indicator" it is of the utmost 

 value to the farmer. If the weather is then settled, the 

 glass rising, and the wind from a favourable quarter, he 

 may set about hay-making with a light heart, knowing 

 he should secure the crop at its very best. The dogstail is 

 one of the later grasses in flowering ; the foxtail, the 

 cocksfoot and the sweet vernal are already almost over, 

 but their stalks are still full of sap, and have not yet com- 

 menced resolving themselves into woody fibre ; the meadow 

 grasses, the rye-grass, and the fescues are now in full flower, 



