the morning once or twice in the manner described for the first day. This should all be done before twelve or one o'clock, so that the whole may lie to dry while the labourers are at dinner. After dinner these plats are to be raked into double wind-rows; next rake the grass into single wind-rows; then the double wind-rows are to be put into bastard cocks; and lastly the single wind-rows should be put into grass cocks. This completes the work of the second day. Third Day-The grass mown, and not spread, on the second day, and also that mown in the early part of this day, is first to be tedded in the morning, and then the grass cocks are to be spread into plats as before, and the bastard cocks shaken out in smaller plats. These, though last spread, should be first turned; then those which were in grass cocks; and next let the grass be turned once or twice before dinner. If the weather has been very fine and sunny, the hay which was last night in bastard cocks may be carried now into the haggard; but if the weather should have been cool and cloudy, no part of it will probably be fit for the rick. In that case, the first thing to do after dinner is to rake that which was in grass cocks last night into double wind-rows; then the grass which this morning was spread from the swaths, into single wind-rows; after this the hay which was last night in bastard cocks should be made up into full sized cocks, and care taken to rake up the hay clean, and also to put rakings upon the top of each cock. Next, the double windrows are to be put into bastard cocks, and the single wind-rows into grass cocks, as on the former days. Fourth Day-On this day, if the weather be unbroken the cocks should be carried to the haggard for ricking. The rick should be made gradually as the hay is saved, and all you have to do to secure it from rain, is to ridge it up in the evening, making the top of the rick like the roof of a house; throw that off the next morning, or whenever you proceed with the rick; it will soon dry, supposing the rain to have fallen the night before-salt as you go. The other operations proceed as before, and are to be continued until the hay harvest is finished. As a general rule, hay should be protected as much as possible by day and night against rain and dew by cocking; and it is highly necessary to guard against spreading more hay than the number of hands can get into cocks the same day, or before rain. In showery and uncertain weather, grass may be three, four, or even five days in swath; but before it has lain long enough for the under side of the swath to become yellow, care should be taken to turn the side of the swath with the heads of the rakes. In making the hay of bog meadows, much care is necessary, from the inferiority of the climates where such bogs abound, and from the nature of the grasses they produce; their grass being often of so soft a quality that it is difficult to make hay of it. This sort of grass, being capable of bearing a very slight degree of heating, must have much more exposure to the sun and wind than artificial upland grasses. When the natural herbage is of a coarser description, it may be put into small cocks in rather a green or damp state, so as to sweat a little it will be, in consequence of this treatment, more palatable and nutritious; but when any heat becomes perceptible, if the weather should permit it, the hay should be spread out and put into large cocks the moment it is in a dried state. : Salt, if applied to hay, checks the fermentation and prevents it from moulding; and if straw be mixed in layers with it, the heating is still farther prevented, by the straw absorbing the moisture. Cattle will eat, not only such salted hay, but even the straw mixed with it more eagerly than better hay not salted, and thrive as well upon it. The quantity recommended is a peck of ground salt to a ton of hay. I should have before observed, under the head of general rule, that the number of hay-makers should always be proportioned to the number of mowers, so that there may not be more grass in hand than can be managed according to the proper process. This pro portion is about twenty hay-makers (of whom twelve may be women) to four mowers. In order that you may calculate the best season for selling your hay (price of course being considered) it will be useful for you to learn that grass loses three parts of its weight in four, by the time it is in rick (supposing it to be ricked on the 4th or 5th day:) it is then further reduced by sweating and evaporation, in about a month, perhaps one twentieth more; thus 600lbs. of grass are reduced to 95lbs. of hay, and between that and 90 it continues through the winter. -From the middle of March to September, the operations of loading and marketing expose it so much to the sun and wind as to render it much lighter; that is, hay which would weigh 90 in the spring or summer after it has been ricked, would waste to 80 by the time it is delivered to a purchaser in the market, from exposure, trussing, and remaining at market, often during twenty-four hours altogether. During the following winter the waste will be little or nothing. The same hay will weigh on delivery 80 in summer and 90 in winter. You now know when to sell. Although some improvement has taken place in the general system of hay farming, in Ireland, there is still no point of agricultural management in which there is more deficiency, or more ignorance displayed, or, on which more waste is committed. Scarcely an Irish farmer ever cuts his hay in time-they wait till it is, what they call ripe, that is until it is spoiled, and the ground exhausted, what is generally termed ripe, is when the seed has formed, a state at which grass should never be allowed to arrive. Hay is the crop-not seed * Unless a rick sweat profusely (I mean from its own sap, and not from external damp, which makes it musty,)`your hay will not be right good. English hay, though inferior in the field to ours, is greatly superior in the stable, from the mode of saving it. -Good farmers who formerly used to make their hay-rick in one or two days, now seldom finish it in less than a fortnight, often crowning the top of the rick with that which was uncut when the rick began. -and by letting the latter form, you turn hay into straw, lose quantity, injure quality, waste time and exhaust the soil. By early mowing—the earlier the better-your meadow land will improve every year, by late mowing it will deteriorate. If you want hay-seed, let a portion of your meadow remain to ripen fully, and cut it as you would corn, and thrash it for its crop of seed. The straw of such crop will be rather better fodder than oat straw. As to saving the hay, a few general rules should suffice-let it get as little sun as possible, you may cut it in soft moist weather, but do not shake it out of swath, except in dry weather. Should the day after mowing be dry, merely turn the swath upside down, and then make it up into small cocks-should the weather be wet, or dark, the hay will not injure by remaining in swaths many days, do not fear its colour, though the grass should turn yellow, the hay will be green, provided it do not get sun. When in cocks, let it lie a day or two, or three, to soak, then make it into large cocks, and in a few days after, according as weather and leisure permit, make it into rick. But this method, rendered necessary in broken weather, is quite different where tedding in dry weather has taken place; it cannot, in this latter case, be ventured in rick so soon. A principal point in hay-making is, to know how soon it may safely be put together, so as not to risk its burning; and in this experience must be the guide. In short, the less shaking out, and what is mis-termed saving, the grass receives, the better; were it uniformly made into rick in so green a state as to heat profusely, it would add to the quality and quantity of your fodder. The heating generates sweetness, and a ton of heated hay has more nourishment in it, than a ton and half, or sometimes two tons of dried and saved hay. Clover particularly, should never be dried, except to save the seed, and it is from the second growth that the seed should be saved. and It might be laid down as a general rule that all hay, except on very old mountain meadows, should be in rick before the first of July; and the earlier in June that meadows are mowed the better. Farmers are, in general, very timid, as to weather, and very impatient; have no apprehensions respecting weather, rain will not injure grass in swath. It is only by shaking out your hay too precipitately, and impatiently, setting about saving it, that you can injure it-time, that accomplishes so much, will save your hay; the moment it is cut, it begins to save, and it cannot save better than in swath. If grass has lain so for a few days, you have then only to turn it once, the first dry day, rake it together and put up in cocks, and it may then be considered as saved; by not giving sun, it retains its sap, and also a green tint, even to the age of two or three years; but by shaking it out, to be saved by the sun, you deprive it of its sap, and should it be overtaken by rain it becomes musty, loses its colour, and is inevitably injured. No. XXII. Dairy Management. Beware the fate of Mr. Synge,* From England if your maids you bring; And that is-send them there to learn. DAIRY MANAGEMENT shall be the subject of this Number, for it rarely happens that your milk-houses, whether large or small, possess all the proper requisites. * Of Glenmore Castle in the County of Wicklow; this gentleman is a valuable landlord. |