1854. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
269 
thick, according to 
t h e space inquired 
between the rails. 
The blocks may be 
bored by horse, steam 
or water power, spee¬ 
dier and truer than it 
can possibly be done 
by hand. 
The cost of build¬ 
ing is so insignificant 
when compared with 
^ U ^ the quality of the 
Fig. v ^ fence when done, 
that no farmer can have the least shadow of an excuse 
for not adopting this plan without delay. This fence, 
when laid up well, is the most strong and durable 
known in this country. A Canadian. Wolford,C. W. 
On Curing Hay. 
Mr. Tucker —Having noticed in the Cultivator, the 
remarks of your correspondents upon the proper time 
to cut hay ; and also deeming that that article did 
not embody the whole meaning comprehended in the 
term “ haying,” I have thought proper to pen for 
you, the following lines, which you are at liberty to 
make use of as you see fit. 
It seems to me to make but little difference when 
hay is cut, unless it is properly cured. I have no 
doubt that the best time to cut hay, is when there is 
the most and thickest juice in it; as that is the only 
portion, essential in nutrition. Ic therefore becomes 
us to inquire how we can cure hay so as to preserve 
the juice with its entire stock of ingredients for the 
support of the animal for which it is designed. We 
think certainly, that it cannot be by the common 
practice of cutting, and wilting grass, and then draw¬ 
ing it into the barn, or what is worse placing it in 
stacks against a time of need. For by this method 
we obtain sour and musty hay. And why ? because, 
when fermentation commences, it is carried too far, 
and instead of a saccharine, we have an acid product. 
But, if that hay was thoroughly dried, i. e., the watery 
portion of the juice expelled, there would be no such 
result. We all know that when hay first begins to 
heat, or ferment, that it smells extremely sweet; but 
not so when it has fermented until, when it is handled 
it is very smoky, and turned a reddish color. We 
have dried it until many of the large clover stalks, 
with the blossom attached, \jould break square in two; 
and old hay makers, and stock raisers, said it was 
entirely spoiled; and yet by putting 4 to 6 tons of it 
in at a time, it “heat” sufficiently to wilt, and settle 
so that in the winter following it was not so hard or 
stiff, as the same quality of hay that was fermented 
until the color was turned. In fact it is almost im¬ 
possible to dry hay, cut at the proper time, so that it 
will not heat if put up in large quantities at a time. 
Let your dairymen and stock raisers, ask themselves, 
how they would like to have all their bread fermented 
until it was sour or even musty, before they were per¬ 
mitted to eat it. What, think you would be the ef¬ 
fect upon the health of the nation, were it generally 
adopted, and yet this is almost universally the case as 
regards the animals we daily use and draw nourish 
ment from. Not only is such food unpalatable and 
unhealthy, but the chemical change that takes place, 
in a great ^measure destroys the fatty and muscular 
ingredients of the hay or other food. Again, we know 
that molasses or syrup, unless it is boiled down very 
strong, or the watery portion be expelled, will ferment, 
and become unfit for use, and thus again, it is with the 
juice of hay ; unless it is sufficiently boiled down by 
the rays of the sun, it will become acid and rank, 
and unfit for the 'purpose for which it is designed. 
IIolindo. Hamilton, N. Y. 
Wheat Without Summer Fallowing. 
Messrs. Editors —A young farmer who thinks 
himself too poor to take an agricultural paper and 
whose opinions and practices are consequently mere 
echoes and copies of those of his father and his more 
immediate neighbors,, recently inquired of one of your 
subscribers what he thought of the expediency of turn¬ 
ing under the sod in a field which had been in pasture 
for two or three years. . The reason why he sought 
advice in regard to this, matter, I found, was that he 
was to have in consequence of some derangement of 
his plans, both himself and his team more at leisure 
after wheat harvest than he previously expected, and 
that the old idea about the absolute necessity of a 
bare fallow and several plowings in the course of the 
summer still lingered in his mind, and made him fear 
that he sbould never get any pay for his labor in plow¬ 
ing up his pasture only once and that so late in the sea¬ 
son. He feared he should get laughed at by the old 
hunkers if he could not point them to a good crop to 
stop their jibes and jeers. Summer fallowing is the 
general practice before sowing wheat all around him. 
This is the only method of putting in a wheat crop to 
which he has been accustomed. He dreaded the plan 
of once plowing without summer fallowing while at 
the same time he was unwilling to have himself and 
team lie comparatively idle during August and Sept. 
He was advised by your subscriber to take every 
creature off the pasture so as to permit the grass and 
clover to get a little start; then to put on two teams 
and plow with a Michigan double plow 9 or 10 inches 
deep in August; and then with a small plow or culti¬ 
vator to stir the soil at or before seeding, but not to go 
deep enough anywhere to disturb the sod. By adopt¬ 
ing this method he was encouraged to expect, (inas¬ 
much as the soil was not a very stiff clay nor 'very 
weedy,) as good a crop as if he had summer fallowed 
the field in the usual way. 
Your subscriber was asked by this young farmer if 
he had seen in your paper any account of raising wheat 
in any such circumstances as those in which he pro¬ 
posed to do so. Nothing of the kind could be pointed 
out to him. Perhaps this may be because your sub- 
