144: HAY AND CUT OUBKN FODDBR. 



of the main branches. Well-kept hay will remain good for more 

 than three years. 



In many parts of India hay is pretty carefully made ; but not 

 unfrequently the grass is cut when the seed is quite ripe, and even 

 after the whole plant has become quite dry. No practice is more 

 reprehensible. 



Our forests could furnish the whole country side with excellent 

 hay, and remove, once for all, the frequent great embarrassment 

 experienced by the army in obtaining forage. But the dispropor- 

 tionate bulk of hay, compared with its weight, renders its trans- 

 port difficult and expensive, especially with our high railway 

 freights and deficient means of communication. Hence its export 

 beyond two or three days' journey by cart has been hitherto im- 

 practicable. To remedy this very serious drawback, the practice 

 has, since the last year or so, been experimentally resorted to of 

 compressing the hay into bales weighing about a maund each and 

 bound round with iron bands, just like a bale of cotton or piece- 

 goods, or with iron wire, the latter requiring no rivets and being 

 at least 2 lbs. lighter for each bale. This plan was very success- 

 fully followed in 1889 and 1890 in the Changa Manga plantation, 

 when the entire outturn was taken by rail to the cavalry camp at 

 Muridki, a distance of' about 60 miles. The compression was 

 effected with hand-worked Boomer presses, which are easily port- 

 able and readily put up. The advantage of compressed bales of 

 fodder to an army in the field is incalculable ; and even in ordi- 

 nary peace times their transportability and non-liability to spon- 

 taneous combustion will render them invaluable in large towns and 

 cantonments, especially those situated at a distance from sources of 

 supply. At Amritsar, in the Punjab, a large steam factory, con- 

 taining several presses and managed by a rich company under 

 European supervision, has been at work for the past thiee years. 



Better than ordinary compressed fodder is fodder compressed 

 in combination with some sweet glutinous substance, which, by 

 tilling up all air-spaces, converts the bale into a solid mass. Mr. 

 Arthur Rogers, a railway mechanical engineer, who originally 

 conceived this excellent idea, has patented a most successful pro- 

 cess, in which treacle is used as the cementing substance. The 

 treacle increases, to a marvellous extent, the nutritiousness and 

 palatability of the fodder and makes it keep good for an indefinite 

 period. Moreover, it makes use of the interstices which would 

 otherwise only contain air, and thus helps to economise space. 

 Some bales of Mr. Rogers' fodder were found totally unaffected 

 after having been buried in the ground for three years. 



