Delaware Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1843-1874, 1874-06-25
AarifaItMraI.


The opinion Of Hampshire County farmer
Is AS follows: "NeAt to sweet, fresh grass, we
think that rowen will make cows, working cattle,
or horses thrive better than any other food, un-
less in case of cattle hard at work. We con-
Glade, therefore, that all hay is better cut early.
Coarse hay will keep stock tolerably well cut
early, which, IL allowed to mature, would not
be eaten at ALL"
The conclusions of these farmers are cor
roborated by the instincts of cattle and sheep.
Turn them into pasture where there is young
and mature grass, and they invariably Craze
upon the former, and will not eat the latter till
driven TO 1t by extreme hunger. The young
grass Is tender, succulent, full OF nutritious
juice, while the mature is woody and dry, all
its virtues having gone to the formation OF
seed, which is the great end of all vegetation
We have never found any hay that will make
so much milk and cause young cattle to thrive
so well as aftermath or rowen. This comes
nearer to summer grazing than, any other
Winter foddering; but we cannot afford to cut
our moving lots more than twice year, as q
general rule, and 30 we delay our first moving
till the grass has developed and is ready to con-
centrate its energies in the formation of seed.
This is, doubtless, at the blossoming period
II labor did not cost so much we would cut
still earlier, and secure three crops at each sea-
son, as we are satisfied that we should obtain
more sugar, gluten, and other soluble and nu
tritious compounds. After plant has bios
somed the virtues tend rapidly to the seed The
stalk and leaves have no sweetness, but become
woody fibre, and having accomplished their
mission in life are ready to wither and die.
Another advantage in cutting early is that
the aftermath is so much better. Cut any
herb before it has developed seed and it will
keep on growing, determined to perpetlate its
kind. Not SO when its energies have been ex-
hausted in the production of seed. In the case
of English grains, which are really species a
grass, the object is the growth of seed, but we
get no aftermath from field OF wheat or rye
When We grow grass we want forage, not seed
and there is no question but that forage, or the
leaves and stems OF plants, is more natural food
Tor stock than grass. No kind of feed makes
sweeter milk and butter than fresh grass.
Another point In the hay harvest is the mode
and amount of drying. The drying of the
grass has about the same relation TO the quail
ty of the hay as roasting has to the virtues OF
coffee. There is Just right to the drying Of
hay Ms there is To the roasting of coffee. Too
little does not develop its aroma, and leaves too
much water 10 stimulate fermentation, while
overdrying takes out all life and renders ii
brown, brittle, iavoress, and little better than
straw. We are persuaded that more hay is in
jured by excessive drying than by too little
We want hay 10 look green, to be flexible, aud
"a,
To look like green tea, and 10 he capable oi
making such decocton as tea makes Ii lett |
in the scorchng sun for two or three days |
hay would make pretty poor tea, worse than |
the old-fashioned bohea, which always seemed
10 us 10 have been alternately dried and mois.
tened, till it was black and half decayed from
fermentation. Grass cannot be wet, after il
has been partially dried, without having much
virtue soaked out of ii; neither can 1t be in the |
am Tn Hast ipU ia
the winds.
AS We go into the hay field the very smell is
inyigorsting. man never feels stronger than
when working among hay. The aroma has the
same effect upon him as cup of strong green
tea. lie tumbles and pitches the hay cocks rs
though they were tribes light as air, and "rak-
lug among them seems TO him but play" Now
this celebrating, inygorating effect of hay,
which comes from All exceedingly volatile oil,is
what we want TO preserve for the benefit of the
cattle and other stock. This aroma is develop
cd by drying, up to certain point it is dissipa,
ed by an excess of exposure to the sun.
We might learn lesson in the curing OF
hay from the mode in which the Chiness curr
their tea or the way in which our mothers cured
their sage, boneset and ether herbs. The
Chinese tell us that their best tea is made from
young and tender leaves, which are dried with
the incest care, so as to develop but not TO dis
sipate the aroma and our mothers never saved
old sage leaves, and did not dry them exposed
to the sun and winds, but on the garrett floor.
and when sufficiently dry, tied them up tightly
in paper bags.
This leads us TO say that the storing of hay is
another point worthy of consideration hy farm.
erS. Stacking hay out DOORS exposed to the
winds aud weather, is wasteful in the extreme.
Who would like to buy tea that had been stack
ed? Putting it into barns with wide cracks on
the sides, is little better, but this is wasteful
We have heard farmers advocate these WIDE
cracks as tending to the better curing and pre-.
seNation of the hay, and we have seen ia.
nous stone barn with yentilator like a chin.
ney in the middle of the NOW, to let the aroma
steam the owner called it-pass OF into the
air. We should as soon think ofputtinr a ven
tilator into tea chest as into a hay.mow -
When hay is once ready TO go into the barn we
should like TO keep 1t Theoretically sealed flom
the air. II 1t could be thus canned up, we
could store it with much less drying than We
do now. When stored in the middle of a large
hay-mow the air is pretty effectually excluded.
The mass settles down so as TO be practically
air-tight, and this is the reason why the hay
from the inside of a NOV is so much better than
that on the outside, and why hay stored in a
NOW spends SO much better than that stored on
a scaiiold.