No. 244. J 337 



Chairman. — Both — but I like rye best, but some farmers prefer 

 ■wheat straw, I speak of Vermont farmers, for this mode of mana- 

 ging hay became known there, but nowhere else that I know of 



Mr. Wakeman called attention to the method of curing clover hay, 

 given by Varlo in his book on husbandry, published in 1785, in 

 Philadelphia, with General Washington among a list of our most 

 respectable citizens, the subscribers. Varlo says, " much depends on 

 a good method of doing things, a good forecast, a ready method of 

 getting forward with business. Such a man does more in one day 

 than another does in two. A man's wits should always be about 

 him, to catch all opportunities in brittle weather. Great precaution 

 must be used to preserve the sap in hay. I see no reason (if hay 

 be rightly made) why it should not feed a bullock in winter as well 

 as in summer, when it was in grass; . ut this can never be done 

 without all the real substance it contained in its grassy state, be 

 kept in it. 



My method is to cut my meadow (in rainy season) after it has 

 rained a day or two, because the odds are above twenty to one, thai 

 it will not rain above two or three days together. Varlo proceeds 

 to speak of his modes ot handling hay in the field, and says that 

 after the first day it is dry, or at farthest, on the second day, he 

 makes font-ball cocks of it. That is, he takes half an armful of hay, 

 shakes it into a round heap, smooths the top of it, strokes down its 

 sides with both hands, gathers all the loose ends into a lump, at the 

 under side of the cock, so that the cock will be round ; this lets the 

 wind circulate round it and through it, &c. 



Fof every ton sprinkle salt (in the mow) . It is inconceivable the 

 value that five bushels of salt would be of in a stack containing ten 

 wagon loads of hay, or more salt: you cannot put too much." 



George G. Sickles, from the special committee on Stafford's pa- 

 tent bread stuff dryer and preserver, presented the following report, 

 which was read, and on motion of Mr. Meigs seconded by Mr. Van 

 Wyck, unanimously accepted. 



The undersigned committee appointed at a meeting of the Farm- 

 ers' Club of the American Institute, held on Tuesday, the 23d of 

 May, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, at the Institute Rooms, in 

 the park, to examine " Stafford's Patent Revolving Dryer and Cooler 



I Assembly, No. 24 i.] W 



