THE YEOMAN.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 49, 9 December 1867, Page 3

THE YEOMAN.

' (From the Australasian.) HAY MAKING. The hay season has commenced, hat is here by no means suggestive of the out-of-door enjoyments inseparable from it in our memories of the old country. In fact, meadows, in the usual acceptation of the term, are seldom to he seen here, and when children, in the exuberance of their spirits, begin a romping match in a hay-field, young or old, 'they are quickly brought to their sober senses by the sharp stubble and wounding* straws So that little scope bring left for the poetic, we must confine ourselves to the strickly practical view of the subject, and by so doing help to enchance one at least of the pleasure-giving qualities common to ell meadows and htty-fields alike,'namely, the sweet scent of the freshly-male hay, for this is one >of the surest indications of good quality. Not that the perfume of a field of newly-; made oaten hay is quite equal to that of a clover meadow in a similar condition, hut we must not on that account despise what We can best and most surely have here, even though advocates for English grasses and clovers may argue to' the contrary. Oaten hay has-been often sneered at as little better than straw, but coarse as ‘ it looks and yielding less perfume, it con-

tains, weight for weight, as much nutriment as the more sweet-scented clover or best English grass, and the farmer can get double the weight of it from the same land. There has nof been aiiy chemical analysis as yet to determine the fact, but that sugar, mucilage, albumen, and other soluble matters are present in well-made ■oaten and wheaten hay in has large a proportion as in any other can be quickly learned by chewing" a lew straws. Hay made from wheat contains apparently more of the fat-forming or heat-giving principles than hay made from oats, and fully as much -of the flesh-forming principles, as anyone may find out by deeding animals on equal weights of either , alternately. ‘Clover hay comes nearest to them, excepting perhaps that made of prairie grass, about which there are such contradictory opinions as yet, and the former contains twice as much albumen and other nitrogenous compounds or fleshforming substances as the best meadow bay made from grasses. ‘This has been proved over and over again !in the laboratory in England, but we have not yet seen an analysis of prairie grass hay, which is there said to be decidedly coarse and inferior to either. Here, however, it is highly approved of by stock, and appears to he as nutritious as any hay we can make. But it was not so much of the different kinds of hay we intended to speak, as of the rules to ;be followed in making all alike. And as to heating in the stack, all beyond a very slight degree of this is injurious. Hay got together apparently as dry as the sun and wind will make it within a moderate space of time -enough in the stack to develop the aromatic flavor so acceptable to stock, without waste of sugar by conversion of this into alcohol, or the dissipation of the nitrogenous matters hr active fomentation, To be safe from after detriment, hay should not contain, when stacked, more than 20 per cent of water, and quickly-made hay has this much left when appearing to be very dry. But if put together without rain having fallen on it during the process, there is less danger qf injurious heating than if the natural juices have been even partially diluted with water, for this addition causes them to ferment much more readily. Thus greater care must be taken in the •stacking of hay that has once been wet, for if fermentation commences in the field it will continue in the staflk, if the least excess of moisture is present. And this ■cannot continue long without decomposing and dissipating all tbeflesh-form-ing matters, and converting the sug'ar first into alcohol, and then into acid; the result of these changes being at length, the development of a volatile, inflammable compound, named by the chemists aldehyd, which quickly sets the stack on five if not allowed to escape. It is a common belief that there should be enough heating in the stack to turn the hay a liltle brown, and animals seem to approve of the change of flavor indicated by a slight change of colour; but chemistry is positive iu its teaching, and proves most unmistakably ' that any departure from the green hue which hay ought to have indicates a proportionate loss of nutriment.

As to the'third cause of hay not being’ so good as it might, the cutting of it too soon, or allowing it to stand too long-, a decision on that point was arrived at long ago. Although certain plants and grasses vary widely, the majority of those used for this purpose yield most in value hut not in weight, if cut when in full flower. After that time 'the gluten, mucilage, and sugar are expended in 'forming the grain, while the condensed nutriment in this does not at all equal, in regard to food for cattle, what is taken from the straw; arid the insoluble fibre in this rapidly increases. With most grasses, and the cereals so generally used here for hay, this rule holds good ; and the other two of most importance in haymaking are, not to allow the cut crop to he exposed much to the weather, or if this is unavoidable, not to permit the tossing of it when more rain is likely to fall, nor to allow the stack to become sensibly heated after the hay has been put to together. Good farmers will say that they are guided by these rules, but the frequent departure from them proves that they are not aware of how ranch they lose by even a slight neglect. Hay dried and stacked without rain, and not allowed afterwards to become heated to above 90 °, should contain at least fifty per cent, of fleshforming and respiratory or heatgiving substances, but, in consequence of apparently trifling mistakes, the one-half of these are often lost by means above described. Smoking or Quieting Bees.— A communication in tbs “ American Bee Journal ” as mmes that the best material to burn for smoking or quieting bees is rotten Wood, such as may be pulverissd by the hand. It has not' the bad effects of tobbaco or old rags. Take a common fire-shovel with a few glowing coals and place the rotten wood on these and blow the smoke into the entrance of the hive. This will soon quiet, but not stupify or kill the bees, It may be necessary sometimes to repeat the smoking before the operation about the swarm is completed.