1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARRIER. 



413 



germinate in the form of rye. "N^Tiat do you say 

 to that ? G. S. Bennett. 



Roijalton, Vt., July 29, 1867. 



Remarks. — We never knew of oats turning to 

 rye, nor of corn turning to potatoes ; but both and 

 all "turn" up strangely sometimes, and we hardly 

 know what they sprang from. May not the "scat- 

 tering spears of rye growing on land which the 

 year before was seeded down to oats," germinate 

 from kernels of winter rye sown with the oats or 

 the grass seed ? Who can furnish the desired in- 

 formation ? 



■WHEAT TURNING TO CHESS. 



The party that complained of "chess" in his 

 winter wheat should have passed through his field 

 and plucked it by the roots. No one can mistake 

 it, and there is no necessity of having it. "As ye 

 sow, so shall ve reap." h. p. 



Long Island, N. Y., July 27, 1867. 



L 



LIME AND SALT FOR CURINQ HAY. 



New England Farmer Office, 

 Boston, August 1, 1867. 



Hon. Simon Brown, — Dear Sir: — ^Ir. 

 E. L. Metcalf, (E. L. & O. F. Metcalf) of 

 Franklin, Mass., called upon us to-day, hoping 

 to have seen you. lie wishes to consult you 

 as to the chemical action of salt and lime as a 

 preservative of green hay or grass. As to the 

 fact of the curing properties of the compound 

 he has no doubts. This he thinks his experi- 

 ence the past and the present season has fully 

 demonstrated. But he wishes to know how it 

 operates, and whether it can in any way prove 

 injurious to the stock which consumes hay 

 cured as he is now curing his. Ilis practice 

 was stated substantially as follows : — 



He commences with one or two machines, 

 according to weather, help, &c., as soon as the 

 dew is oil', in tlie morning, and puts it all into 

 the mow the same day if possible. If imprac- 

 ticable to get it all in the day it is cut, he puts 

 it into cocks which are capped. This is carted 

 the next day — the cocks never being opened. 

 He cuts about 60 tons, and puts in from 4 to 8 

 loads per day, and applies a mixture of about 

 four quarts of air- slacked lime and two quarts 

 of salt per ton. The other day he commenced 

 raking before the machine had finished cutting, 

 and, much to the alarm of his foreman and 

 other hands, put it directly into the barn. 

 Yet with the application of the lime and salt 

 mixture the hay thus hurried iu does not heat, 

 sweat, nor become musty. 



Last winter he kept on hay thus cured, 4 

 cows, 6 oxen, 2 two-year-olds and a horse ; all 

 of which did well and were healthy. Indeed, 



he said the stock would pick out this hay from 

 that cured in the ordinary style, lie sold a 

 ton this spring to an old farmer in his neigh- 

 borhood, who, after having used most of it, 

 asked him how he happened to sell rowen. 

 On being told that it was not rowen, but ordin- 

 ary first-crop hay, and that, too, which was cut 

 rather late in the season, his neighbor re- 

 marked, well, it was so soft feeling and fresh 

 looking, that he really thought it was rowen. 

 After being told that the hay was cut and put 

 into the mow as above described, the man re- 

 marked that he should certainly try the salt 

 and lime himself, for he never had any hay in 

 the spring which his cattle ate so greedily. 



By way of experiment, Mr. Metcalf ex- 

 posed a small stack of hay thus cured in the 

 mow to the opon air on the north side of his 

 barn, and is satisfied that it resisted the effects 

 of the weather far more effectually for the 

 liming ; and infers that such hay would bear 

 transportation much better than hay cured as 

 usual. 



With this process and with modern imple- 

 ments, he says he can put his hay into the barn 

 at an expense of .$2 per ton. 



At his request, I have submitted the ques- 

 tion of the chemical action of the lime and salt 

 on the large amount of moisture which ijrass 

 is known to contain, to Dr. James R. Nichols, 

 who has promised to consider the subject, and 

 reply in the next number of his Journal of 

 Chemistry . 



Mr. J\letcalf left a pressing invitation for 

 you to call and examine his barnful of hay. 



I have frecpiently salted hay that I thought 

 was rather green, but have never tried lime. 

 I notice that in an article, written by i\lr. X. A. 

 Willard, of the Utica Herald, doubts were ex- 

 pressed as to the expediency of liming hay. 

 Have you ever experimented with it.^ 



Yours, &c., S. Fletcher. 



On the Farm, Concord, Aug. 9, 1867. 

 I think we had better publish the foregoing. 

 I am so much interested in the statement that 

 I have put down one scaffold of hay in the 

 lime and salt, and if opportunity offers shall 

 be most happy to compare results with the 

 Messrs. Metcalf. We shall cut about eighty 

 tons of fodder this year, and just now 1 am 

 exceedingly busy ; as this season, especially, 

 we find it necessary to "make hay while the sun 

 shines." Yours, truly, Simon Brown. 



