Litchfield enquirer., 1859-07-14

the grass, but only to dry out the water. In drying herbs. for medicinal and culinary uses, the experiment. of many centuries teaches that drying in the shade is the only way to accom- 1 plish the desired object. In making hay this cannot be entirely accomplished, but the plan i which most nearly secures it-tbat of curing ill the swath and cock-is good and safe one ; advantageous also, as requiring less ex- posture to injury from rain than any other. Clover hay and coarse herdsgrass especially need to be cured in the shade, as they bear little handling while dry, without loss of leaves and blossoms. When moved, let the grass get fairly wiltcd and all external mois- ture dried off while in the swath, with perhaps single thorough shaking up and spreading, and then put into cocks, and it will be cured with very little loss of value. The partial fermentation or " sweating" which it under goes, causes but slight change in it's consti tuent parts-save that it separates the water thcrcfrom-ahd after standing thus for twenty four hours, it needs little or no after-tending to prepare it for storage, and has far less of that harsh and strawy character than it would pos scss if cured in different manner In curing by this method, care should be exercised that the hay is not put up before it is fully wted, and that the cocks be small and we'll con structed, so that the sweating process be not fermentation as to dccompose the sugar of the hay. changing it to alcohol and carbonic acid, both o. which soon cvaporatc.
 The weather has d great influence on the value of the hay crop, but this we cannot long toresee, or at all control. If it should prove unfavorable and constantly changing, we have found that hay already cut had best remain in the swath--rctaining its value thus unstirred much better than with repeated dryings and wettings. Nothing so injures hay as washing by Tain, and this, if many times repeated, will totally destroy its value as food for animals The provision of hay-caps should not be neg lected. These will often enable the farmer to secure hay ill good crder, which would othcr- wise be seriously injured. In getting in hay imperfectly cured, if it can be allowed to stand for twelve or fifteen hours in the load it will become better fit for storing It will probably heat slightly in that time, which will be arrested by the process of unloading, and leave the hay sufficiently cured for the mow.
 Good tools and good workmen are essential to the economical performance of hay-makng There IS more ease, as well as completeness, with the good workman in the performance of his labors, and good tools are also great aid in these respects. Order and readiness in the whole round of preparation, give largely in- creased facilities for pushing forward this and all other farm operations. It is important to secure ample means to do everything as and when it should be- since so much depends on the right curing and securing of this great product. The general use of moving ma chimes and other labor-savng implements, rem der farmers to some degree independent of manual labor, often difficult to be procured, and always dear at this season of the year. These improvements will often enable the usu- al laborers of the farn to secure in good order fifty acres of meadow more readily than they could have got in ten without their aid.
 Country Gentleman.