HAY AND HAY-MAKING.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 82, 3 February 1876, Page 7

HAY AND HAY-MAKING.

. (Agricultural Gazette.)

,*. One of the lessons which the English farmer may learn from his .brethren on the Continent is the use of sour hay. The writer first heard of this product from a Erench gentleman, who in broken English attempted to explain what appeared to be a very unpromising process.

That sour hay is actually a useful food, is however, no longer to be doubted, as its making and use have been pointed out both in a recent number of the Royal Agricultural Society's 'Journal,' and by agricultural contemporaries. The writer has frequently seen it used, and can speak to the relish with which stock eat it, as well as to its flavor and appearance. Sour hay-making seems to have many points to recommend it to English, and, we may add, Irish agriculturists ; in fact, the damper the climate and the worse "the season, the better ought this process of preserving fodder to be appreciated. The process is as simple as the following short description of it might warr ant us in supposing. The fresh fodder, usually green maize or grass, is tighfly crammed into a trench, and covered over with a foot of earth. No salt is used, and the wetter the fodder is put together the better. In practice, upon Austrian and Hungarian estates (for we speak of what we have actually seen), trenches four feet wide and six to eight feet deep are made, and kept premanently open and fit for use by struts of wood and boards. Into these trenches the fodder is crushed, until it rises just enough above the surface to make a mound with the superimposed earth. There it is left until winter, and it is then cut out with a hay spade, allowed to dry, cut. with a chaff-cutter, and given to cattle in stalls.

The process is «o similar to that employed for the preservation of sugarbeet pulp, tbat no one need wonder that the food comes out in good condition. It may also be compared to the plan of storing brewers' grains by trampling them down in a large vat, only in this case salt is usually added. There seems no reason indeed why salt should not be sprinkled between layers of fodder thus pitted, but as above stated it is not thought to be necessary where the process is extensively used. An important practical point will be sufficient compression so as to ensure all the air been driven out, and this will be eaiser effected when the fodder •is soft, succulent, and moist — hence the remark, the wetter the better. In case of set-in wet weather no one need despair of storing his grass so as to preserve its utility -, and again in seasons when keep is too plentiful, and is apt to be wasted, the Austrian sour-hay may be remembered with advantage. In ordinary hay-making it should be remembered that the period of cutting has an important effect upon the quality of the hay. In general it may be stated that the earlier the grass is cut the greater is the amount of soluble matter retained in the hay, and the earlier and better will be the aftermath. On the other hand we must not forget the element of quantity, for a heavy crop is scarcely consistent with early cutting,; The via media is probably best followed by cutting just as the flowers begin to fade. After cutting, we are assured by Dr Voelcker, that, grass will resist much wet if it be only let alone. This fact, indeed, does not require the support of a scientific witness, for. it is well known. But the doctor makes it interesting, by explaining that grass is naturally protected by a waxy or fatty covering over its epidermis, which wraps the whole vegatable matter " in a waterproof mantle." If, however, by repeated turnings the crop becomes bruised, the sugar, gum and other soluble matters, are liable to be washed out, and not only so, but a destructive fermentation is set up, to the permanent injury of the hay. "In showery weather, grass recently cut should, for this reason, not be turned over more than is absolutely necessary, and under all circumstances it is desirable to handle the crop as lightly as possible."-

Again, says the doctor, " I have seen farmers spending labor on turning hay on overcast, days, on which a dew-point hygrometer showed the air to be nearly saturated with moisture, proving that evaporation could not possibly take place at the time, and rain might be expected at any moment." Lastly, we cannot pass over Dr Voelcker's judgment on brown hay without notice, He is of opinion that green hay is the most nutritious, and that although brown hay, owing to partial changes, has more aroma; this is caused by a sacrifice of valuable elements which more than counterbalance the improvement in taste. ( Ear too much bad hay is made every year, and too little attention is paid to the teachings of science. On many farms the work of hay-mak-ing, clashes, with root. sowing, and hoeing, and is insufficiently attended to. The Middlesex method of hay-making has become famous, and was minutely described by Middleton as early as 1813. A complete, description of Middlesex hay-making is also to be found in the ' Farmer's Calendar', too long for quotation, but the jjfcfcory of a piece of grass may. be , followed according to this system from the moment it is cut until it is fit to cart; Supposing it to, be put- before 9 o'clock in the imornirig it is tedded as evenly as possible,' and turned with equal care, either once or

f twice, before noon. -•" After dinner it is •raked into single windrow, and put in grass cocks before night. The next day the grass cocks are well shaken out into staddles, and the staddles are turned. After dinner, the straddles are raked into double windrow, and these are made into bastard cocks. The third day, these larger cocks are again thrown out, shaken up, and by the afternoon, if the weather has been propitious, they may be carted home. If it has been cloudy, the hay in bastard cocks the night previously must be raked together again, made into full sized cocks, and will probably be fit fbr carting on the fourjji day. As cutting progresses, each day's grass requires a separate treatment, so that at one time the manager has to deal with fresh grass and hay in more or- less forward states, and it is , this which complicates the process, and would render a more detailed description wearisome.

Bones for Poultry. — The various preparations of pure bones, selected and prepared as crushed, granulated bone meal, &c, for feeding to poultry, are becoming each year more and more popular, and deservedly so. The experience, of nearly every one who has given them a faithful trial, has been such as to make them constantly patrons of the most reliable vendors, it being invariably found that by a judicious use of broken or ground new bone, the fowls are healthier, more prolific, stand confinement better, and acquire less bad habits by confinement. Chickens fed on these preparations to the proper extent, will grow to a much better size, the use of the bone having the effect to postpone the time when the bones harden, or in common phrase, set. Chicks are, therefore, such for a greater period, and may be kept growing for a longer time by the use of bone preparations. — < N, Y. Poultry Journal.' Cabbage. — Everyone knows that cabbages will not grow fast or head out well unless they are hoed very often. Most have also learned that this crop does the best if hoed very early in the morning, while the dew is on the ground. Hoeing later in the day, when the dew has evaporated, will not have .the same effect. The reasons appear to be these : — The dew being covered with .soil, is retained, and helps to keep the soil moist. It contains a large amount of oxygen, which it took from the air. This acts to decompose the soil, and to hasten the growth of plants. It also absorbs a large quantity of ammonia, which is directly taken up by the plants. Now the same causes ought to produce the same effects on other plants, and it has been found by observing farmers, that they do. Market gardeners prefer to have potatoes hoed either when the' soil is wet with dew, or alter a slight rain. Observations made by one of the best farmers in Wisconsin, extending through many years, convinced him that there was great advantage '^ in ploughing land while it was wet with dew. Especially was this the .case when clover or grass was ploughed under. It was found that the grass had sod rooted much sooner, and that the succeding crops were larger and of better quality.