The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1853-08-16
aor tbe farmers.
From the Rural New Yorker. ?
Hay..-.Cuttins and Curing.

- 1he hay y-makers are at work and the summer
+aiFis full of the fragrance of the new-mown
grass. The. farmers are early and late afield,
and the season is one Of bustling activity to
Them and their,wives aDd children. q, there
is work to do in the country about these days,
days when the denizens Of the city think
most of. their country relatives, aud ottenest
20 out amongst them. Let them. not forget
how busy their farming friends must be. .
In what stage of the growth af grass it shall
be- cut, and the manner in which it shall be.
cured are questions of considerable impor-
tance-to the, farmer, though,as yet no decisions
in which -al -ac9uiesce, have made any one
practice the uniform and general one. Some
cut in the season of Towering, before the bios
sons, have fallen, Others not until the seed has
formed, and others defer the operation until it
sis fully ripe. Eachrclass bring arguments to
sustain their plan Of procedure, as also is the
case in relation to several modes of curing
We will state. now some facts relative to both
.subjects-sdrawn from chemistry and practical
analogszbut bearing more particularly in IA
.:vor Of early cutting and shade curing, which
siss conceded, by many of our best farmers,
Ito secure the greatest nutritive value of the
hay.
Chemistry shows US that all plants contain
.the:latgest amount Of matter soluble in water,
at the period of hpwering, and that the sugar
and gluten of the grass, and few other solu,
Bile ingredients constitute its chief value as the
food for animals. These rapidly diminish as
the seed forms, changing into insoluble woody
fibre, aud the hay which should, as far as may
be, resemble grass in its most perfect state, is
do of hat
period. There are but few exceptions to this
rule, but we believe the Kentucky blue grass,
the June grass, and some others which furnish
but atlight amount Of stem, and are most val
nable from their leaves which continue grow
ing through the summer. may stand far past
the. towering a.e be1efciuly. 1t has been
supposed, because ripe hay yielded the great
est amount Of extract when boiled, that there
fore it must contain most nutriment, but is now
found that the boiling very ..imperfectly imi-
tates the process OF digestion, and both analy-
ses, and experiment with the living animal,
CONFIRM the fact that the best hay is that cut
and properly cured nearest the period Of bios
somng
= The process of curing which shall mest per-
feciy retain the nutrative properties spresent
in the plant, is.the best process. In drying
herbs for medical and culinary uses, the ex-
perience of many centuries teaches, that dry.
ing in the shade is the only way to accomplish
be entirely accomplished, but the plan which
most closely follows it, that of curing in the
swath aud cock, is a good and safe one-ad.
vantageous also, requiring less exposure to in
Jury from rain than any other.
Glover, hay and coarse herds S-grass especial
ly, need to be cured in this way, as they will
not bear much hardling when dry without
loss of leaves and blossoms. When moved,
let the grass get fairly wited aud the external
moisture dried off when in the swath, with,
perhaps, Il single throughout shake.up and
spreading and then put into cocks, and it may
he cured wtlryery little loss. The partial fer
mentation, or sweating" which it underg"es,
causes but slight change in its constituent
plrts-save that it separates the water there
frenl-and after standing thus fortwenty hours,
it needs but little after tending, to prepare it
for the NOW or stacks, and has far less of that
harsh and stIawy tendency that it would pos
s,ss if cured in different manner Care
should be taken in curing this way, not to
MT up the hay before it is fully wited, and
tlat the cocks be small aud well constructed
so that the ssceating process may not be carried
TO excess, and induce so great Il fermentation
as TO decompose the sugar Of the hay, chang.
ipg it to alcohol and carbonc acid.
The weather has great influence on the real
vaF,e !of the hay crop, but that we can neither
toreRe nor control. If the weather should
prove unfavorable, and constantly changing, it
js thought that the less the hay is stirred the
bettcr-tlnt it will retain its value While lying
wet in the swarth. much longer than ifdi>tnrh-
ed with repeated dryings and wettngs. Moth
ing so Injuries hoy as washing by rain, and this