The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-06-07 00:00:00

HAY•MAKING.

The following letter, sent to The Tunes for publication
will interest many of our readers :
Although it may eeem rather early to invite the
attention of farmers to hay-making, nevertheless I
can hardly midst availing myself of the opportunity
offered while the pressure on your valuable apace is
somewhat moderated during the Parliamentary holi.
aye.

That an immense quantity of hay is spoiled annually
by many taxmen pin ding on in the ancestral ruts and
clinging to the old hazy tradition of the custom of the
disirict in which they live, heedless of the appearances
and circumstances which guide their more enlightened
brethren as to the proper time for mowing this impor
tant crop, is abundantly evident to every well-informed
agriculturist.
Because Mr. Jones, whose land is well-sheltered,
loamy, friable, and dry, has begun hay-making, Mr.
Brown must follow suit, although his land is cold and
exposed, clayey, mosay and wet, and notwithstanding,
too, that he has applied different dressings and manures
to the soil. It is surely worse than absurd thus to do
out of ssason what others do in seamen simply to be up
in the race, and to make hay on dry soils and wet,
clayey soils and mossy, sandy soils and loamy, at the
same time, regardless of the condition of the grass
plants.

The right time to mow graai greatly depends, of
course, on the sys•em of farming pursued, on the
character of the pasture which produces it, and on the
nature of the soil and climate, but eepecially on the
condition of the plants as regards maturity. Hay. is
just as much injured by being allowed to get over ripe
as it is by being cut too soon, Moreover, the farmer
ought to be guided in a great measure by the use to be
made of the article—whether to feed horses, cows,
young stock, or sheep. If for horses at work, the
gram should be mowed after it has passed out of
blossom, when the seed is in the milk, because at this
stage it contains the largest quantity of nutritious
sub-tances, such as sugar, starch, gum, &e, which are
of the highest value, contributing much towards ren-
dering hay euch a choice article of food. If for cows,
it should be cut earlier, so as to leave the graa as
nearly in the green state as possible—soft and succulent
—because in this condition it contains a larger quantity
of juices which assimilate well in the animal and pro-
duce a greater flow of milk. If for young stock and
sheep, the grass snould be mowed when in full flower,
because after flowering, and as the wed forms and
ripens, it is exposed to loss in its nutritive matter by
the seeds being shaken out and the britile foliage break-
ing off during cutting and makink, and the grass itself,
especially the rye-grass, becoming almost a woody
fibre, losing newly all Its sap and sweet aroma. In
short, hay made from over-matured grew is no better
than ordinary straw, if indeed so good.
Clover, again, which is such excellent food for milch
00W11 and sheep, should be mown immediately after
"looming, before the used Is foamed. It should be
eared by gebtly turning over the swathes la sash a
matuier aa to lose ale little of the foliage as poesible,

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and the tedding-machine ought never to be used under
any cirumstancev. Moreover, clover ought not to be
exposed long to the nun, but, being wilted and partially
dried, should be put up into small cocks and left to
cure for four or five days, when it will be fit to cart
away. A very good method to prevent fust in a
wet season is to carry the green clover and lay it in
alternate layer's with dry straw, sprinkling a little salt
on each stratum. Fermentation will speedily set in,
giving • sweet clovery flavour to the straw, such as
cattle like very much and eat with avidity. Besides,
straw is • good corrective of the heating qualities of
clover ricks. The most profitable use of clover, how-
ever, I have found to be to cut it green for the farmi
stock or to feed it off with sheep.

Jumt one line as to the time most likely to affoid
favourable weather for hay-making, now that the
fluctuation in the quantity of rain in the year has been
ascertained with such exactitude by long and careful
observ.itions. Without placing much faith in the old
tradition of St. Swithin, I may remark that the 111th
of July is generally a turning point from fair to wet
weather. No doubt it may sometunes prove the
reverse of this, but that may well be called the ex-
ception, and not the rule. I think the lines imn
thus -