Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 239 



land. I know, by experience, if you cut when in bloom, for three 

 years in succession, it will die out, and nothing but blue grass will 

 be left. In pressing my hay, I found that I made the heaviest 

 bales of hay on which the seed had matured, and the bales had a 

 brighter and better appearance than those pressed from hay cut 

 when green. I think there is fully a loss of twenty-five per cent 

 in cutting hay when green, in the weight, and certainly there is a 

 third more work before you can get it up in spreading, and the risk 

 of getting it damaged by rain. In seeding for meadows, I would 

 recommend to mix at least one pound of clover-seed to the acre. 

 In our climate, if it should be dry and hot after cutting our 

 meaddws, the sun injures the roots of timothy, as it does not sprout 

 up readily; but the clover, being a top root, will come up and pro- 

 tect the timothy roots. Moreover, I think you will get quite as 

 much timothy, or more, than if your timothy was alone on the 

 ground, and a much better after-growth for fall feed. 



MINK PARK. 



Mr. A. A. IMudget, Great Valley, Cattaraugus county, N. Y. — You 

 wish to know how to start a mink park, and what kind of business 

 it is. I have kept mink for the last eight 3'ears, I have from thirty 

 to sixty per year; could raise any quantity if I could get fish or 

 fresh feed for them. Any board fence, four feet high, if the mink 

 are properly trimmed when four weeks old, will confine them. 

 Their fur can be made two or three shades darker than the wild 

 mink. Twenty^-five or thirty are as many as a farmer can keep, as 

 all the feed we can get is woodchuck. You mistake as to the num- 

 ber I keep; I did not state five hundred; I only wanted to know 

 where I could find a place where I could get enough fresh fish to 

 keep five hundred. Adjourned. 



August 6, 1867. 

 Mr. Nathan C. Ely in the chair; Mr. John W. Chambers, Secretary. 

 I THE PHILOSOPHY OF HAYMAKING. 



\ Mr. E. A. Bower, Tompldns county, N. Y., desired the Club to 

 discuss the subject of making hay. He inquired whether it is a 

 good practice to salt hay, or to apply lime to it. He thought the 

 Qub should discuss the philosophy of making hay, and publish 

 the discussions. 



