84 



grass, being capable nf bearing a very slight degree 

 of heating, must hare much more exposure to the svn 

 and wind than artificial xipland grasses. When the 

 natural herbage is of a coarser description, it may l)e 

 put into small cocks in rather a green or damp state, 

 so as to sweat a Httle : it will be, in consequence of 

 this treatment, more palatable and nutritious; but 

 when any heat becomes perceptible, if the weather 

 should permit it, the hay should be spread out and put 

 into large cocks the moment it is in a dried state. 



Sali, if appHed to hay, checks the feiTnentation 

 and prevents it from moulding ; and if straw be mixe<l 

 in layers with it, the heating is still farther preventeil, 

 liy the straw absorliing the moisture. Cattle will eat, 

 not only such salted hay, but even the straw mixed 

 with it, more eagerly than better hay not salted, and 

 thrive as well upon it. The quantity recommended 

 is a peck of ground salt to a ton of hay. 



I should have before observed, under the head of 

 general rule, that the number of hay-makers shtnild 

 ulwaj's be proportioned to the nuiuber of mowers, so 

 that there ma}- not be more grass in hand than can 

 l>e managed according to the proper process. This 

 proportion is about twentv hay-makers (of whom 

 twelve may be women) to four mowers. 



In order that you may calculate the best season for 

 selling your hay (price of course being considered) it 

 will be usefid for you to learn that grass loses three 

 jmrts of its weight in four, by the time it is in rick 

 (supposing it to be ricked on the 4th or 5th day :) 

 it is then further reduced by sweating * and evapora- 

 tion, in about a month, perhaps one twentieth more ; 



• Unless a rick sweat profusely ( I mean from its own sap, 

 and not from external damp, wliicL makes it musty,) your liay 

 will not be right good. English hay, though inferior in the 

 field to ours, is greatly superior in the stable, from the mode 



of saviuL' it Good farmers who formerly used to make their 



hay-rick in one or \.wn days, now, seldom finish it in less than a 

 fortnight, often crowning the top of the rick with that wliich 

 was uncut when the rick began. 



