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XXI. — On Stacking Sainfoin. By the Earl of Essex. 
To Ph. Pusey, Esq. 
^Ir DEAR Mr. Pusey, — If you think the following experiment worthy 
of insertion in our journal, it is very much at your sers'ice : — 
On Monday and Tuesday of the last -week in June, last summer, I 
cut 9 acres of sainfoin, a good crop for the season, averaging 1^ load 
to the acre, and in full flower. On Wednesday it was once turned, 
and on Thursday and Friday it was carried and stacked. The weather 
was dry and hot, so that the hay was somewhat dried, but still so 
green, that on working it between the finger and thumb, abundance of 
moisture exuded. In stacking it, I put alternate layers of oat-straw 
(in all 200 trusses). All hands prognosticated heating and burning ; 
and my bailiff suggested that I should put a perpendicular chimney, in 
in the centre of the stack, of rough timber, communicating at the bottom 
with a horizontal one, extending to the outside of the stack, thus — 
r 
1 
No heating whatever took place ; I have now reached the centre of the 
stack, and nothing can be finer than the hay. It has retained its green 
colour; and the flower, especially near the chimney, is as bright and 
purple as when first cut. The straw seems to have absorbed all the 
superabundant moisture, and is almost as good as the hay : and the 
^vhole together cuts up into most admirable chaff. This year I should 
certainly wish to repeat the process with all my hay, but fear there will 
be a great deficiency of straw. 
Believe me, yours very faithfully, 
Essex. 
3, Chapel Street, Park Lane, January 6. 
