252 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
LORD VANE TEMPEST 2T>. 
Calved June 7th, 1853. Bred by J. C. Jackson, Newtown, Long Island. The property of the Brothers B. & C. S. Haines, Eliza¬ 
beth, N. J. Sire, imported Lord Vane Tempest (10,469).—Dam, Nymph 2d, by 3d Duke of Cambridge, (5,941).—G. d., Nymph, by 
Bertram 2d, (3,144).—Gr. g. d., Nannette, by Patriot, (2,412).—Gr. gr. g. d., Nonpareil, by Young Denton, (963).—Gr. gr. gr. g. d., 
Arabella, by North Star, (460).—Gr. gr. gr. gr. g. d., Aurora, by Comet, (155).—Gr. gr. gr. gr. gr. g. d.,-, by Henry, (301).—Gr. 
gr. gr. gr. gr. gr. g. d.,-, by Danby, (190). 
SALTING HAT AND SALTING STOCK. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
A goodly proportion of the clover and 
grasses intended to be made into hay is al¬ 
ready cut, cured, and stored away in stacks 
or barns. But there will be some second 
cuttings, and probably some late cuttings on 
meadows which have been depastured in 
the Spring, and for the benefit of those who 
have yet some hay to make during the pres¬ 
ent season, as well as hereafter, and cattle, 
sheep, &c., to salt every season and every 
week of their lives, I wish to submit a few 
suggestions which, I trust, may promote at 
once the comfort of many dumb animals, 
and the pecuniary interests of those who 
own them, and to whom Providence has 
committed the charge of their health and 
comfort. 
I have been both surprised and sorry dur¬ 
ing the haying season of this year, as also 
in previous years, to find the practice pretty 
general of throwing from one to four quarts 
of salt on every load of hay after unloading 
it in barn or on stack. This is generally 
done at the close of unloading, so that one 
layer of the hay must be “ grievously” salt 
while the bulk of it remains untouched by 
salt. The inevitable consequence of this 
will be that the animals to which the hay is 
fed will get every now and then during the 
Winter far more salt than they would natu¬ 
rally like, and far more than the system re¬ 
quires. This overdosing with salt will pro¬ 
duce a thirst which cannot in Winter be 
easily allayed, or which may produce scour¬ 
ing and other uncomfortable and injurious 
consequences. In a word, both the comfort, 
and the health of the animals fed on hay 
thus mismanaged must be sacrificed. 
During the Winter months stock general¬ 
ly take much less salt, when they have free 
access to it, than they do in the Summer, 
sheep, perhaps, excepted. I have known 
eight quarts of salt recommended to be put 
upon each ton of hay, and as much actually 
put on, and this amount, I am very sure, is 
a great deal more than a cow or ox would 
use, of its own free will, during the time oc¬ 
cupied in eating up that quantity of hay. 
If the salt put upon hay were sprinkled 
very carefully and evenly all through it, by 
having some one to throw about a tea¬ 
spoonful or two on every forkful as put 
away in mow or stack, one portion of the 
objectionableness of the practice would be 
obviated. Still even then there would re¬ 
main objections sufficient to condemn the 
practice, especially when a much more ex¬ 
cellent way of salting stock may be easily 
adopted. This better way is to have a box 
or trough containing salt, or a mixture of 
salt, ashes, charcoal and a little sulphur, so 
covered up as to be safe from ordinary 
storms of rain or snow. This is the only 
way in which our domestic animals can get 
just as much salt as the system requires, 
and no more. If hay is salted, even in the 
most even way, the animals consuming it 
will get either more or less than the healthy 
demands of the system require. This much 
reason teaches, and it has been confirmed by 
experience. 
Within a few years I have seen in the 
agricultural papers testimony in regard to 
the superiority of the latter practice over 
that, formerly adopted, of salting hay. Such 
testimony I have seen both from dairy and 
sheep farmers. The amount of this testi¬ 
mony is, that cattle and sheep have done 
better by having .free access to salt than 
they formerly did on salted hay, and that 
this way of supplying salt is much better, 
for the thrift of all kinds of stock during the 
Summer, than the very common practice of 
salting them once a week. 
With these convictions in regard to this 
matter, based upon testimony given both by 
reason and by experience, I cannot but utter 
a word of protest, or of caution at least, 
against the practice of salting hay, and 
against recommendations such as I have 
lately seen in journals of some reputation 
and authority. To advise farmers to salt 
their hay, and by no means to neglect it; to 
tell them that this will increase the value of 
the hay many times the cost of the salt, and 
that stock will be benefited thereby, is giving 
sanction to a wrong practice. There is. at 
least, a much better way. T-s. 
Remarks. —We give the views of T-s 
at length, but must differ with him some¬ 
what. We have heretofore cautioned hay¬ 
makers against a careless use of salt—against 
compelling animals to eat a large amount. 
nolens volens, (willing or unwilling;) but 
much experience as well as observation on 
this particular point leads us to still com¬ 
mend the use of salt. Our practice has 
been to put up hay before it is “ dried to 
sticks,” and to use a little salt, say four to 
ten quarts to the ton, according to its green¬ 
ness. Usually four or five quarts is suffi¬ 
cient to exert a strongly antiseptic or pre¬ 
serving influence. We by no means “ add it 
all upon the top, of a load,” but keep a buck¬ 
et of fine pulverized salt at hand, and sprinkle 
a little evenly on every layer of hay put 
into the mow or stack. When the hay has 
become very dry before gathering, we have 
frequently brined it when “ mowing away.” 
A correspondent once informed us tha 
