Recent Improvements in Haymaking. 
53 
looked. It is often possible to carry the bulk of a field when 
the Takings are hardly fit for goins^ into the rick. In our late 
wet seasons this has frequently happened. But a still greater 
saving is effected when the hay is formed into windrows by the 
horse-rake. Admitting, as in the case of the tedding-machine, 
that there are circumstances — generally similar ones — under 
which the liorse-rake cannot be profitably employed, we may 
still assert that hundreds of crops which are now got together 
exclusively by the old system of manual labour might be more 
expeditiously and more economically managed in the way sug- 
gested. For those who have not hitherto done so, these hints 
may be of service. Do not set the teeth too near the ground ; 
if the crop is heavy, take out a portion of them, and, with careful 
management, the gain will be considerable. No rule can be laid 
down to meet every case ; written descriptions can never super- 
sede the guidance of common sense and practical experience. 
Many who possess the choicest implements make as great mis- 
takes as other people. With reference to this, we have much 
pleasure in quoting some remarks with which Mr. C. Howard, 
of Biddenham, Bedfordshire, has favoured us : — 
"This is not by any means a haymaking county, but the little 
that is made is done as cheaply as in any county in England. 
The system adopted by those who have these indispensable 
implements to cheap haymaking — the haymaker and horse-rake 
— is 'to shake the grass out with the former implement, then to 
rake it into small hacks, or more frequently, if the weather is 
fine, to dispense with that operation, and at once to drag it 
into windrows by the horse-rake. These rows are then shaken 
up by hand, or, if the hay is not too forward, by the machine. 
I generally prefer the former plan, as much damage is often done 
by the front action of the machine shaking a large portion of the 
leaf off. These are then turned by the back action, which, with- 
out shaking the hay too much, leaves it in a very light state for 
both sun and wind to act upon it. This may appear a rather 
summary mode of proceeding ; but as the hay in olir neighbour- 
hood is largely grown upon meadoAvs which produce a coarse 
description of grass, our great aim is to avoid doing too much 
to it, so that it may get some little heat in the stack. To econo- 
mise labour must be the chief study of the farmer, if he means 
to be successful ; and I know of rio operation on the farm where 
this principle can be brought to bear so much as in haymaking. 
For with the m.achines I have named, and the mowers that are 
now coming largely into use, a farmer may do without any, or 
with very little, extra help during the busy season of haymaking. 
Good and useful as these machines are, judgment is required in 
