32 FODDER IN INDIA. 



allow you this margin {vide office records), and it is up to the 

 manager to make it less or answer questions, possibly pay ! 

 The writer can only help the reader by telling him that it is 

 possible to have a surplus ! Quod erat demonsrtandum- 



Much more might be written about ensilage, the tem- 

 peratures for " sweet," "sour," and "burnt" silage— chaffing 

 crops for silage, etc, etc., but perhaps enough has been said 

 above for ordinary grass farm purposes and to meet the 

 purpose of this book. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Hay is not necessarily dry grass or rather vice versa, 



but is made by carefully drying and 

 Fermentation. . j ..u ^ 



saving grass or crops, and then matur- 

 ing them in stacks for some time where in order to make 

 "hay" they must undergo a certain amount of fermen- 

 tation without some fermentation you have only dry grass or 

 dry crops : theoretically the longer grass is in stack, the 

 better the hay that will turn out, all other things being 

 equal and subject to certain limitations. The points of good 

 hay are that it should be (i) free from dirt and roots, (2) a fine 

 green appetising colour, (3) well preserved, (4) sweet smelling 

 and slightly aromatic, (5) in the case of grass a mixture of 

 fine cultivated grasses. But what generally passes for hay 

 in India is " dry-grass " of varying qualities from excellent 

 rarely often good down to bad. Owing to rapid consump- 

 tion, want of extensive weather proof storage accommodation, 

 climatic considerations to some extent only, frequent bad 

 seasons, etc., interfering with the accumulation of a large 

 reserve it is not often possible to make the best hay. 



Nevertheless the aim of the grass farmer should certainly 

 be to get " hay " if possible, and once a manager has estab- 

 lished his station reserve there seems no reason with the 

 proper conditions to hand and the necessary interest why 

 hay should not be forthcoming. The following observa- 

 tions may be of help to the beginner. By all means do things 



