1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



425 



get waterlogged in a hot day. Milk porridge, 

 hot or cold, is excellent to lean upon ; so is 

 butter-milk and bonnyclabber, reduced with 

 one-third water and sweetened with sugar; 

 avoid molasses and water. 



The Clip — Tn carrying back the scythe, 

 raise it well above the ground, dropping it in 

 flat when the middle is just parallel with the 

 body, and with a gentle sway of the body 

 carry the clip, raising the heel of the scythe 

 as it passes the centre, and turn the point un- 

 der the swath, bringing it well back. In 

 mowing, the breathing keeps tally with the 

 clipping, and therefore let your motion be 

 slow, so as not to interfere with your natural 

 breathing. This is very important. 



Opening Hay. — The practice of many to 

 wait until the dew is off and the ground 

 warmed, is erroneous. By opening as soon 

 as the sun is fairly shining, the hay, by the 

 time the dew is oS, will be well warmed on 

 the top ; turn it over then and you will see 

 nothing of dew underneath, and will have 

 gained from one to two hours start in the dry- 

 ing, by early opening. 



Tumbling and Pitching —It pays well, 

 in time and ease, to tumble the hay well. Roll 

 it compact, and in no larger rolls than can be 

 easily lifted wi h the fork. Do not drive too 

 near the heap ; leave room so that you can 

 stand directly between the load and the hay ; 

 then, instead of fussing around, gathering 

 scatterings and fixing things, place the fork 

 on the top, a foot beyond what was the centre 

 of the windrow, and press it to ihe ground, 

 then you will lift in the best shape for both 

 pitcher and loader. For the second fork full, 

 strike right for the other half of the tumble, 

 leaving the scatterings untouched for the third 

 fork full. Though this is the easiest and the 

 quickest way to load a tumble of hay, not one 

 pitcher in fifty will thus "pitch in" without 

 fussing around to get the scatterings at each 

 fork full ; when, if these are all left for the 

 last, they are generally gathered by one fork 

 full and in less time than is occupied at each 

 half of the tumble. Piiinehas Field. 



East Charlemont, Mass., July 9, 1870. 



For the New England Parmer, 



KBCBSSITY OP DKYINQ QKA.8S IN 

 MAKIWG HAY. 



I have been a constant reader of your pa- 

 per for more than three years, and find many 

 valuable things, and some humbugs. I never 

 before wrote a sentence for a paper in my 

 hfe, and may never do it again ; but it being 

 a rainy day so I cannot work at haying, I have 

 been looking over your last week's issue. I 

 see the discussion is still going on about the 

 proper time to cut hay, and how to cure it. I 

 thought it had been discussed so much and 

 tried so often that most farmers had become 

 convinced that grass put in the barn would not 

 make good hay. 



One man savs the secret is in storing it solid 

 in the mow. Now I will give you a little of 

 my experience in cutting hay. This is the fif- 

 tieth year that I have cut hay, and the forty- 

 eighth that I have had a stock of cattle to take 

 care of. I have found it very important to 

 have hay got in the best possible order. The 

 best hay that can be got for cows in milk, for 

 calves or almost any stock that has no proven- 

 der, is that cut and cured as my grandmother 

 did her herbs. This however can be done 

 only where there is little hay and much barn 

 room. Cut before it is in full blossom, after 

 the dew is off, on a bright day ; spread thin 

 in an airy place, and turn each day until thor- 

 oughly dry. 



As to the secret of solid packing. I have 

 cut and stacked large amounts of hay that 

 could not be got to the barn until sledding. I 

 have made stacks all the way from five to 

 thirty hundred pounds in a stack, and have 

 found that hay in a five or ten hundred pound 

 stack will save well when it is so green that it 

 would spoil in a thirty hundred pound stack. 

 Just so in the barn. Hay put on a scaffold and 

 not trodden will save when so green thit if put 

 in a bay and trodden solid it would spoil. In 

 a bay where hay is injured by heating, that 

 where the man stands most that mows away, 

 will be most injured. 



Two years ago I put into a bay 24x17 feet, 

 some eight tons of bay that was cut when in 

 full bloom, with a machine, after the dew was 

 off; raked and put up before the dew fell at 

 night; opened the next day, turned and got 

 in in the afternoon. At the same time I had 

 about two tons that had had the sun only one 

 day, but as it looked like a storm, I put it on 

 top of the other. As there was no storm, I 

 immediately filled up the mow with well made 

 hay — some sixteen tons in all. In September 

 following, I pressed it, commencing on top, 

 with the later cut hay. The bales weighed 

 from 350 to 380 lbs. each. When I came to 

 the hay that was put in green, the bales went 

 from 340 to 310, and the hay at the place 

 where the person stood who mowed away, was 

 turned to a very dark color and was matted 

 together. When I came to the early cut and 

 thoroughly cured hay, the bales went from 

 380 to 410 pounds. No two days of July sun 

 that ever shone in Maine would make hay so 

 light as that put in so green as to go through 

 a process of heating in the mow. 



To have good hay, it should be cut when in 

 full bloom or before, and well made. For 

 working horses or oxen that are fed freely on 

 provender, the seed should be pretty well ma- 

 tured, as early cut hay will make them too 

 loose. 



Let him who advocates putting grass into a 

 mow, kill a fat hog in September, cut it up 

 before the animal heat is out of it, pack it in 

 a barrel without salt or brine, and head it up 

 tightly, and if he can show good pork in 



