276 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Sept. 
Salting Hay and Stock. 
Messrs. Editors —In the last number of the Coun¬ 
try Gentleman, I perceive that two of your subscribers 
have given their opinion upon salting hay; and as the 
subject is of some importance to farmers, will you per¬ 
mit a third to offer his views. I was formerly in the 
habit of salting most of my hay as it was paeked into 
the mow, but experience, the best of all teachers, has 
learnt me better. 
The method adopted for the last two years by your 
West Pawlet (Vt.) subscriber, of providing boxes of 
salt constantly for the use of his stock, is by far the 
most judicious; only I think he errs in supposing that 
much less salt is required in -winter than in summer. 
Left to their own instinets and inclinations, horses and 
cattle will consume about the same in one season as the 
other; but sheep will consume considerably more in the 
winter season. This may be accounted for by the fact that 
dry forage is more difficult of digestion than green; and 
that salt helps to keep up a healthy digestion, particu¬ 
larly when the animal has free access to pure running 
water, there can be no doubt. 
Since I have practiced keeping my stock supplied with 
salt, I find that my flocks of sheep (each 100 in num¬ 
ber) will take up to from five to six quarts weekly in 
the winter season, and from three to four quarts in 
summer. 
Before I commenced this practice, my sheep were 
very liable, in winter, to a disease called the stretches; 
which is nothing more or less than a stoppage in the 
alimentary canal, by a dry or hardened condition of the 
food, sometimes in severe cases causing-a structural al¬ 
teration in the small intestines, (not unlike the bilious 
cholic in the human system,) causing the animal to 
writhe with pain, frequently lay down and get up, and 
stand in a stretching position, true to the instinct of 
nature, as if conscious of an effort to draw the intestines 
back into their natural condition. This is a formida¬ 
ble disease, and often proves fatal, and let me here say, 
that the best remedy is a half gill of eastor oil given in 
the first stages of the disease; but the prevention is 
better than the cure. I am now seldom annoyed by 
this disease, not having lost a single sheep by it since I 
have adopted the plan of having my salt boxes at all 
times supplied with St. TJbes or Turk's Island salt, and 
pure aqueduct water running in each yard. But it will 
not do to suffer your boxes to remain empty three or 
four weeks at a time, and then replenish them; your 
sheep will take more into their stomachs than they can 
dissolve, or their systems can manage, and they will die 
under its influence; such is their fondness for this valua¬ 
ble and indispensable ingredient, which is a certain and 
sure indication that the health and well being of the 
animal requires it in minute particles at all times and 
in all seasons. 
The advocate for salting hay may fancy that these 
remarks tend to strengthen his opinion, for hay evenly 
salted will afford sufficient for the system in his view, to 
promote digestion and vigorous health, when fed out 
two or three times daily. In reply to this, I will again 
call to my aid experience , that never failing instructor. 
It is impossible to salt hay precisely even, or just as 
much as the animal requires and no more; some parts 
will get too much and some too little; and in keeping 
sheep constantly on salted hay, they become weary of 
it, or eloyed as the saying is; they lose their relish for 
it, and a w r aste of fodder is the consequence, though by 
no means the worst consequence attendingit, for it fre¬ 
quently produces (particularly among lambs) the scours, 
a disease (similar to the dysentery, in the human sys¬ 
tem,) very difficult to manage and often proving fatal. 
When feeding out salted hay, both to sheep and cattle, 
I have noticed this disinclination to eat and relish their 
feed, and this cathartic tendency when it did not run 
into the dysentery form, and whenever a part of the 
mow that was not salted came along, they would eat 
with great avidity and overload the system, producing 
a swelling or bloat; and I very much doubt about its 
being the most proper and natural way to feed salt to 
our domestic animals in winter to mix it with their hay, 
even if a proeess could be arrived at that would give 
the animal just what its system required and no more. 
It is evidently more desirable, more in accordance with 
the instinct of nature, to go to his salt manger when¬ 
ever he pleases, partake of as much or as little as he 
pleases; and having watched and learned the habits of 
our domestic animals, I believe it to be economy to 
practice accordingly, and that the best results will be 
attained thereby; while the loose and careless observer 
of these things, perhaps deeming them too trifling and 
minute for his attention, the negleetor of his farm stock, 
will be continually losing by disease, by leanness of 
flesh, and by a diminutive weight in his annual clip of 
fleeces. 
My annual hay crop ranges from 75 to 125 tons; usual 
average about 100 tons; to which I formerly applied 
considerable salt in packing aw r ay in mows. I now ap¬ 
ply none, unless foreed to it by bad hay weather, and 
used as a preventive against damaging in the mow. 
While I annually feed not less than 25 bushels to my 
stock, not three bushels finds its way into the hay mow. 
J. W. Colburn. Sprinsfield, Vt ., August 1, 1853. 
Deep Plowing. 
Messrs. Editors — I observe that you are turning 
the attention of your readers to deep culture, and to 
encourage this system I will give you my experience 
briefly. 
Three years ago this spring I purchased a worn-out 
farm, as it was termed, and in the autumn plowed 
twenty-four acres of meadow with a Michigan sub-sril 
plow, from ten to twelve inches deep—sowed eighteen 
acres with spring wheat, and stocked. The balance 
was planted to corn, well manured with yard and spe¬ 
cial manures. A strip a rod in width, by the side of 
this corn, was plowed with an ordinary plow, and com¬ 
mon depth—both treated alike; the latter yielded from 
forty to fifty bushels per acre—the former double those 
amounts. The meadow produced this season, second 
mowing, two and half tons and upwards per acre, of 
good timothy hay. This land was tolerably manured, 
and well drained. I took another old meadow of seven 
. .~~ . . — -i— 
