THE CULTIVATOR. 
253 
Clover hay should remain longer in the cock than 
most other grasses, that all the larger stems may undergo 
their proper fermentation. Before removing to the 
stack-yard or barn, we generally turn the cocks bottom 
side up an hour or two before loading. 
Hay cured in this manner is much heavier, because 
not so much of the natural juices are evaporated by the 
direct heat of the sun. Its undergoing a partial fermenta¬ 
tion in the cock, prepares it to be placed in larger bodies. 
Hay cured in this manner, should not be tumbled by the 
quantity into a mow all together, but one or two loads a 
day put together, and a mow of twenty tons should occu¬ 
py the period of three weeks in filling, that it may all be 
got in as green as possible. The mow should be trod as 
lightly as possible at the time of filling. 
When fears are entertained of over fermentation, a 
lave dry straw or stalks over the whole, is an excel- 
le; ng. This coarse fodder, absorbing the extra juices 
of ie hay, retains it, and makes it more tender and pala¬ 
table. We prefer this method to the common one of 
salting for the above reason—and that we may select our 
days for feeding the stock their salt in winter, by brining 
the hay on the more mild and warmest days, when they 
have the least appetite. In this manner, we have a 
ready market for our poorest hay. Cattle and sheep de¬ 
vour it with a good appetite. If farmers would pay 
more regard to this manner of salting their stock, say to 
t)ne hundred pounds of hay use a pint and a half of fine 
salt and one pail of water, they would be well remunera¬ 
ted for their extra labor. Sheep and other stock will 
look as full on these faintest days of winter, by thus salt¬ 
ing their food, as they will in the most favorable weather 
on good hay. 
When grass is quite ripe it should be exposed to the sun 
as little as possible after it is mown, and be made into 
large cocks or removed immediately to the barn, that by 
a steaming process, the dry stalks may become more va¬ 
luable. Hay should in no wise be put into the barn or 
stack when wet; there is more hay damaged in this man¬ 
ner than by securing it too green. That hay which comes 
out of the mow the most solid will spend the best. 
There is more value in a load of hay taken from land 
that produces about one and a half tons to the acre, than 
there is in that hay which is cut from lands that pro¬ 
duce much heavier or lighter burden. 
In stacking hay, first put in the rack about two tons, 
and let it rest two or three days before more is added. 
The stackman should be careful about treading near the 
outer side but as much as he will in the middle, and mind 
and keep the centre the highest. Four or five tons 
make the most convenient stack. We have different 
ways of stacking recommended to prevent vermin. But 
let the stack be put up as above directed in its proper time, 
before the seed is matured, and there is no danger of 
mice; but when it so happens that grass must be put into 
stacks in a ripe state, salting will aid in preventing the 
depredations of vermin, but such hay should be fed out 
the first winter. 
It is safer to purchase a large stack by guess than a 
small one. 
The manure may all be removed from the stack yard; 
the urine is sufficient that remains in the land. 
Tight barns are preferable to more open ones, with 
ventilation at the top; the heat will not drive to the cen¬ 
tre of the mow but remains more equally over the whole 
than it will in an open bay. 
A very common but bad practice is to put an assorted 
lot of hay over a cow, calf or horse stable, for spring 
use, where it has received all the effluvia arising from 
the manure below all winter, which cannot add to the 
quality of the hay, for at a time when the team is the 
most dainty, the best hay for spring work comes out of a 
well pressed mow, as little exposed to the air as possible. 
By dividing the mow and hay stack with a hay knife, not 
only keeps the hay as fresh as possible, by first feeding 
out one half, but we can better judge at what time of 
winter our fodder is half spent. 
When a field is designed for clover seed, it is better to 
eat it down till the first of June with sheep. The after 
math will be shorter if the heads stand close together, 
the crop less bulky, but better filled. 
If a crop of June grass be light, it many times is better 
to stand late. The ergot or poison with which it fre¬ 
quently abounds, will all be washed off by rains, and the 
rowen that springs up will frequently produce a good 
burden of excellent hay. 
As we cannot cut all our grass in proper season, we 
reverse our mowing by cutting first this season the field 
which was last to receive the scythe last year. 
Drag-rakes are very fashionable in these parts, for ra¬ 
king light grass, and after the cart, &c. They are of 
very great advantage in facilitating the work. They are 
made with a light head six feet long; the teeth set in the 
head 4 inches apart, and 14 inches long; the handle en¬ 
ters the head in two parts about two and a half feet asun¬ 
der, and united together about four feet from the head 
where a convenient place is fixed for the head to draw by. 
The small hand rake is pretty much laid aside. What 
would have required the labor of a boy and four or five 
men ten years ago to rake over, now is disposed of equal¬ 
ly as well, by one boy eight, and another fourteen years 
old, a horse and revolving rake, and drag rake. 
Weybridge, Vt., June , 1844. S. W. Jewett. 
SOUR SOILS. 
Messrs Editors— I could not but expect that my pa 
per on this subject would call out some notice, but I cer¬ 
tainly did not look to such a source as Mr. J. J. Thomas. 
From what I have seen of his writings, I have learned 
to think him too much of a scientific man to hold to old 
notions when there is not ground to support them; and I 
think his own mind, if it considers the true facts in this 
subject, will lead him to think as I do. This is not flat¬ 
tery, but a candid estimate of the man. 
The statement with regard to the lead pipe, in the July 
No. of the Cultivator, is an interesting one, and worthy 
of consideration, though not in reference to sour soils, 
inasmuch as the soil cannot be considered as extending 
to the depth of 2 or 3 feet. I will not attempt to give an 
explanation of it, since it would require a chemical ex¬ 
amination of the earth from the spot to determine posi¬ 
tively what it was that corroded the pipe. The cause 
was evidently local, and the growth of sorrel, I should 
consider, entirely accidental. If Mr. Thomas will send a 
portion of this earth to Dr. Emmons, I will see that it is 
examined in reference to this fact. 
When I spoke of the effect of lime upon the growth of 
sorrel, I had in my mind a very interesting letter of 
Judge Darling of New-Haven, in which are found some 
remarkable facts on this subject. It was published in the 
Farmer’s Gazette for Feb. 1843, and I presume Mr. Tho¬ 
mas has seen it. That this weed disappeared from the 
land of Mr. Dell after the use of lime, as stated by Mr. 
T. I do not doubt. But did he apply nothing else ? Did 
he not apply a course of tillage in connection with the 
lime, which would be quite as likely to remove it ? In 
judging of results from any process in Agriculture, all 
the attending circumstances ought to be carefully estima¬ 
ted. 
Mr. T. says that the yellow pine will perish if not 
planted in what is regarded as a sour soil, and yet sorrel, 
the presence of which is always supposed to be an indi¬ 
cation of a sour soil, will grow where the pine wall per¬ 
ish. These facts would seem to contradict each other. I 
do not see the force of Mr. T.’s conclusion to this para¬ 
graph. 
I do not know what <c are regarded” as sour soils. I 
do not know what a sour soil is. I have never heard of 
the presence of any free acid being detected in any soil, 
nor in the water which passes through it. It certainly 
would be detected if it were there, or else great mis¬ 
takes are made in analysis. It cannot be reasoned thus, 
because such a plant grows upon a soil, that soil is sour. 
The only evidence of its being sour, is the actual finding 
an acid in it, and if one is there, it can certainly be found. 
There may be “ great difficulty in determining the con¬ 
stituents of the soil,” but this can only be in case the 
quantity is very minute of any one substance, which I ap¬ 
prehend cannot be the case with the acid in a “ sour soil.” 
Newburgh, July 15, 1844. A. J. P. 
