1858. 
TIE G U L TIV A T 0 R 
209 
Messrs. Editors — I notice that a controversy still 
goes on respecting the time of cutting and manner of 
curing hay, especially timothy. I now intend giving 
my views at length, as it has been my study for half 
my life time, to cut and cure at the time and in the 
manner most palatable to animals, and at the same 
time most nutritive. I believe nothing of food kind is 
nutritive, unless it has a good flavor or smell; therefore 
it is important, both for our own interests and for the 
comfort of the dumb animals under our care, that we 
should have their winter food prepared in the best man¬ 
ner we can to retain a good flavor. I will state my 
reasons for this opinion; I was informed long ago, by 
one who I supposed knew, that to make the tobacco 
plant a narcotic, it had to be gathered at a certain time, 
and cured in a peculiar manner. If not so gathered 
and cured, it would be insipid, or lose its narcotic 
quality, and would not be used by man ; and that 
beautiful flower, the fox-glove, requires to be gather¬ 
ed at a certain stage of its growth, and cured in a 
very peculiar manner, being dried in the dark, and 
then called Digitalis, a powerful medicine for both 
man and beast. So it is with other medicinal flowers 
and herbs ; they need a certain treatment, both in the 
time of gathering and curing; otherwise they are 
worthless. Such reading led me to try, and if possi¬ 
ble find the best time for cutting and manner of cur¬ 
ing hay; and I doubt not, had hay been made for 
man, that centuries before the 19th, it would have 
been a settled point by man, or good housewives, as 
to which is the best time of cutting and curing it, to 
answer our tastes. 
I will now give my time of cutting, and also man¬ 
ner of curing when cut by scythes, as also the manner 
which I think indispensable when cut by machines. 
As to time of cutting, I know that every farmer 
will agree with me, that nothing they ever fed to cat¬ 
tle, (that are fairly fed during the winter,) will put 
on as much fat or increase their weight near as much 
in a given time, (say two months,) as rich pasture. 
Therefore I argue that grass should be cut for hay, 
and not let it stand until it becomes dried hay before 
it is cut. If I could cut all my hay in a day or two or 
a little longer, I would let timothy stand until the seed 
was formed, but still quite soft; but as that cannot be 
accomplished in the time mentioned, I begin when in 
full flower. 
When cut with the scythe, and the grass heavy, I 
did all the curing in the swath. Grass will stand a 
good deal of rain, without injury, if left in the swath, 
when cut green. When I intend to take it in, if not 
thoroughly dry on the lower side, if wet from rain I 
turn the swaths over before raking, if even somewhat 
green on the underside of the swath; but if no rain 
had fallen, I raked it up, and took it into the barns. 
In that way it took a sweat if a heavy crop in the 
swath, and another sweat in the mow ; and I hold it 
indispensable that hay, for either sheep or cattle, should 
have a sweat, and it is equally requisite as that to¬ 
bacco or fox-glove should have their peculiar modes of 
curing and time of cutting. If a light crop cut with 
scythe, as soon as a little wilted, I raked up, put in 
good sized or rather large cocks, let it take a good 
sweat in the eocks, and let them alone until dry enough 
to take in. (Timothy hay cut green and cocked in a 
green state, will stand much rain without much inju¬ 
ry if let alone ) In this way I always made fine fla¬ 
vored hay, and my stock always did well upon it. 
But since we all around here cut our grass with ma¬ 
chines drawn by horses, the mode ot curing must be 
somewhat different to make fine flavored nutritive hay. 
The machine cuts and spreads it as evenly as it grows 
on the ground; therefore it dries much more sudden¬ 
ly than if cut by scythes, and the horse rake ought to 
be started a few hours—(more or fewer, according to 
the temperature)—after the machine is started, and 
the grass put in cock, and not left until the machine 
has done a day’s work, and until the dew goes off next 
morning. If a high temperature, your hay will then 
be so dry that it will take no sweat; hence no flavor, 
and much less nutriment. The trouble with those men 
who make a trial of cutting green, is that they dry it 
so much in the hot sun that it cannot sweat in either 
cock or mow. I have seen stacks of hay in many 
places, the hay having been put up so dry, that if my 
arm had been long enough I could have put my hand 
through them, and that after they had stood for 
months, and the hay had no more flavor, (except the 
little ripe seed left on,) than brush from a dead tree. 
I want to see no stacks or hay mows put up for me but 
will in a week or ten days become so solid that it is 
with difficulty you can push your hand into them one 
foot. 
Now, Messrs. Editors, I have given you, as lucidly 
as I can, my views and reasons for deviating from the 
rules laid down by far more learned men, as to the 
time for cutting and manner of curing timothy hay, 
and indeed all other kinds of hay I have had any ex¬ 
perience with in this hot climate. Yet I have no doubt 
but some of those men, possessed of good talents, will 
criticise my mode not a little, but all I ask is, that my 
brother working farmers will prove me and try me, 
and see whether I know anything of the true princi¬ 
ples of making and time of cutting hay. Let them 
follow my plan strictly, and then either approve or 
condemn it, according as they find it. As haying will 
be in less than two months, I should be pleased if 500 
farmers in the State of New-York would give my plan 
a trial and report. 
It is high time, in this age of enterprise in the world, 
that the true time and method of cutting and curing 
hay was known, so as to make it most pleasant to the 
taste of the dumb brutes, and most profitable to the 
owner. John Johnston. Near Geneva. 
--- 
Draining Increases the Effect of Manures. 
Draining not only “deepens the soil,” but largely 
increases the effect of the application of manures. 
Every farmer may have noticed the difference result¬ 
ing from fertilizing material applied alike to even a 
single field, without being able to satisfy himself as to 
the cause of that difference. This variation in effect 
most frequently takes place on clayey soils, or on 
springy spots with an impervions subsoil, and such wet 
places, however highly manured, cannot be made to 
produce good crops. Yet, when thoroughly drained, 
there are no soils which better reward manuring and 
cultivation than these. 
The elements of manure act upon plants only in a 
state of solution ; hence it is of the greatest importance 
that they be so applied, and that the soil be so prepar- 
