from four or five to six or seven loads on the acre, such as are drawn by three or four horses, in their return from taking up the hay to town. (Dickson's Pract. Agr. vol. ii. p. 916.)

5212. Manure is laid on at intervals of time more or less distant, according to the same circumstances that determine the quantity of it. Though there are some instances of hay grounds bearing fair crops every year during a length of years, without any manure or any advantage from pasturage, except what the after grass has afforded (Marshal's Review of Reports to the Board of Agriculture, p. 183. Western Department); yet, in general, manure must either be allowed every third or fourth year, in the land depastured one year, and mown the other; "or what is better, depasture two years and mow the third." (Northumberland Report, p. 111.) A succession of hay crops without manure, or pasturage, on meadows not irrigated, is justly condemned by all judicious farmers, as a sure means of impoverishing the soil.

5213. Bog meadows are the least valuable of any; they are of two kinds, peat bogs and earthy bogs. The first are situated in hollows or basins, which, from having no natural outlet for water, and not being so deep or so plentifully supplied with that element as to constitute lakes, become filled up with aquatic plants and mosses. By the decay of these after a certain time, and the drainage and culture of art, a surface of mossy soil is formed on which some of the inferior grasses may be sown or will spring up naturally. In warm moist climates and where the mould of the bog is rich, fiorin or Timothy grass may be found to answer; but in general the woolly soft grass and cock's-foot are resorted to, unless indeed lime be applied, or a coating of sand or earth, in which cases the clovers and better grasses will sometimes answer. These bogs are in general too soft for pasturing any other animals than sheep.

5214. Earthy bog meadows are situated either in hollows or on slopes. They are formed by an accumulation of water in the subsoil, which not finding a free passage in any one point, spreads under and filtrates upwards through a considerable extent of surface. The grasses on such meadows before they are drained, are chiefly of the sprot or juncus kind; but by draining the quality of these is improved, and better kinds appear. Such meadows yield a considerable produce of coarse hay; they abound

chiefly in cold hilly districts devoted to breeding.

5215. The culture and management of bog meadows differs in nothing essential from that of the river kinds. A lighter roller is used in spring, the greatest care is taken in eating down the latter grass, whether by small cattle or sheep; and in some cases, in very dry weather in summer, the main drains are dammed up for a few weeks in order to stagnate the water, and supply the soil with moisture. No manure is ever given unless in the case of some cultivated peat bogs, which are dressed with earthy or saline mixtures. 5216. As branches of culture common to every description of hay lands may be mentioned, the hay-making, the application of the after-grass, and pasturage.

5217. The making of natural or meadow hay has been carried to greater perfection in the neighborhood of London than any where else, and may therefore, with great propriety, be recommended as an example to the rest of the kingdom. The following account of it is drawn from Middleton's Agricultural Survey of Middlesex.

5218. When the grass is nearly fit for mowing, the Middlesex farmer endeavors to select the best mowers, in number proportioned to the quantity of his grass and the length of time it would be advisable to have it in hand; which having done, he lets it out, either as piece work, or to be mown by the acre. In the latter way, each man mows from one acre and a half to an acre and three quarters per day; some there are who do two acres per day during the whole season. About the same time he provides five hay-makers (men and women, including loaders, pitchers, stackers, and all others), to each mower. These last are paid by the day, the men attending from six till six, but the women only from eight till six. For an extra hour or two in the evening, when the business requires dispatch, they receive a proportionate allowance.

5219. The mowers usually begin their work at three, four, or five o'clock in the morning, and continue to labor till seven or eight at night; resting an hour or two in the middle of the day. Every hay-maker is expected to come provided with a fork and a rake of his own; nevertheless, when the grass is ready, and laborers scarce, the farmer is frequently obliged to provide both, but for the most part only the rake. Every part of the operation is carried on with forks, except clearing the ground, which is done with rakes; and loading the carts, which is done by hand.

5220. First day. All the grass mown before nine o'clock in the morning is tedded, in which great care is taken thoroughly to loosen every lump, and to strew it evenly over all the ground. By this regular method of tedding grass for hay, the hay will be of a more valuable quality, heat more equally in the stack, consequently not so liable to damage or fire; will be of greater quantity when cut into trusses, and will sell at a better price; for when the grass is suffered to lie a day or two before it is tedded out of the swath, the upper surface is dried by the sun and winds, and the interior part is not dried, but withered, so that the herbs lose much, both as to quality and quantity, which are very material circumstances. Soon after the tedding is finished, the hay is turned with the same degree of care and attention; and if, from the number of hands they are able to turn the whole again, they do so, or at least as much

of it as they can, till twelve or one o'clock, at which time they dine. The first thing to be done after dinner, is to rake it into what are called single wind-rows; and the last operation of this day is to put it into grass-cocks.

5221. Second day. The business of this day commences with tedding all the grass that was mown the first day after nine o'clock, and all that was mown this day before nine o'clock. Next, the grasscocks are to be well shaken out into staddles (or separate plats) of five or six yards diameter. If the crop should be so thin and light as to leave the spaces between these staddles rather large, such spaces must be immediately raked clean, and the rakings mixed with the other hay, in order to its all drying of an uniform color. The next business is to turn the staddles, and after that, to turn the grass that was tedded in the first part of 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 work-people are at dinner. After dinner, the first thing to be done, is to rake the staddles into double wind-rows; next, to rake the grass into single wind-rows; then the double wind-rows are put into bastard-cocks; and lastly, the wind-rows are put into grass-cocks. This completes the work of the second day.

5222. 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 stadales as before, and the bastard-cocks into staddles of less extent. These lesser staddles, though last spread, are first turned, then those which were in grass-cocks; and next the grass is turned once or twice before twelve or one o'clock, when the people go to dinner as usual. If the weather has proved sunny and fine, the hay which was last night in bastard-cocks, will this afternoon be in a proper state to be carried; but if the weather should, on the contrary, have been cool and cloudy, no part of it probably will be fir to carry. In that case, the first thing set about after dinner, is to rake that which was in grass-cocks last night into double wind-rows; then the grass which was this morning spread from the swaths into single wind-rows. After this, the hay which was last night in bastard-cocks, is made up into full-sized cocks, and care taken to rake the hay up clean, and also to put the rakings upon the top of each cock. Next, the double wind-rows are put into bastard-cocks, and the single wind-rows into grass-cocks, as on the preceding days.

5223. Fourth day. On this day the great cocks, just mentioned, are usually carried before dinner. The other operations of the day are such, and in the same order, as before described, and are continued daily until the hay harvest is completed.

5224. As general rules, the grass should, as much as possible, be protected both day and night, against rain and dew, by cocking. Care should also be taken to proportion the number of hay-makers to that of the mowers, so that there may not be more grass in hand at any one time, than can be managed according to the foregoing process. This proportion is about twenty hay-makers (of which number twelve may be women), to four mowers; the latter are sometimes taken half a day to assist the former. But in hot, windy, or very drying weather, a greater proportion of hay-makers will be required than when the weather is cloudy and cool. It is particularly 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, the grass may sometimes be suffered to lie 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 (which, if suffered to lie long, would be the case), particular care should be taken to turn the swaths with the heads of the rakes. In this state, it will cure so much in about two days, as only to require being tedded a few hours when the weather is fine, previous to its being put together and carried. In this manner, hay may be made and put into the stack at a small expense, and of a moderately good color; but the tops and bottoms of the grass are insufficiently separated by it.

5225. The hay tedding machine has been invented since Middleton described the hand process as above. This machine (fig. 337.) is found to be a most important saving of manual labor. It is computed that a boy and horse with the machine will tedd as much in an hour as twelve or fifteen women. The hay-rake, which may be added to the same axle when the tedder is removed, is also an equal saving, and a requisite accompaniment to it; as where few or no women are kept for tedding, there must necessarily be a deficiency of rakers. These machines are coming into general use near London, where the price of manual labor is high and hands sometimes scarce. They are also finding their way among the proprietors of extensive parks in all parts of the country, as saving much labor in making hay from natural pasture,

5226. There are no hay-stacks more neatly formed, nor better secured, than those made in Middlesex. At every vacant time, while the stack is carrying up, the men are employed in pulling it, with their hands, into a proper shape; and, about a week after it is finished, the whole roof is properly thatched, and then secured from receiving any damage from the wind, by means of a straw rope, extended along the eaves, up the ends, and on each side of the ridge. The ends of the thatch are afterwards cut evenly below the eaves of the stack, just of sufficient length for the rain-water to drip quite clear of the hay. When the stack happens to be placed in a situation which may be suspected of being too damp in the winter, a trench, of about six or eight inches deep, is dug round, and nearly close to it, which serves to convey all the water from the spot, and renders it perfectly dry and secure.

5227. During the hay harvest it is of great advantage to the farmer, to give constant personal attendance on every party, directing each operation as it goes on. The man who would cure his hay in the best manner, and at a moderate expense, must not only urge the persons who make the hay, the men who load the waggons, and those who make the stack, but he should be on the alert, to contrive and point out the manner in which every person may do his labor to the most advantage. Unless he does this, one

moiety of the people in his hay-field will be of no material use to him; and if he should be absent for an hour or more, during that time, little or nothing will be done. The farmers of Middlesex engage many hay-makers: some of them have been known to employ two or three hundred; such men find it necessary to be on horseback, and the work-people find them sufficient employment. A man of energy will make the most of every hour, and secure his hay while the sun shines: one of an opposite description lounges his time away, and suffers his hay to be caught in the rain, by which it is fre. quently half spoiled. Or if the latter should have the good fortune of a continuance of dry weather, his hay will be a week longer in the field than his neighbor's, and the sap of it dried up by the sun.

5228. The waste of grass, on being dried into hay, is supposed to be three parts in four by the time it is laid on the stack; it is then further reduced, by heat and evaporation, in about a month, perhaps one-twentieth more, or 600 lb. of grass are reduced to 95 lb. of hay; and between that and 90, it continues through the winter. From the middle of March till September, the operations of trussing and marketing, expose it so much to the sun and wind, as to render it considerably lighter, probably 80; that is, hay which would weigh 90 the instant it is separated from the stack, would waste to 80 (in trussing, exposure on the road, and at market for about 24 hours), by the time it is usually delivered to a purchaser. During the following winter, the waste will be little or nothing. It is nearly obvious, that the same hay will weigh on delivery 80 in summer, and 90 in winter. From this circumstance, and others which relate to price, a farmer may determine what season of the year is the most advisable for him to sell his hay. 5229. In making the hay of bog meadows, considerable care is requisite both from the inferiority of the climates where such bogs abound, and from the nature of the grasses they produce. In some cases, the grass is of so soft a quality, that it is difficult to convert it into hay. To prevent its being consolidated in the cocks, it must be frequently opened up, and when the weather permits, completely exposed to the sun and wind; this sort of grass being only capable of sustaining a very moderate degree of fermentation.

5230. 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 go through the progress of "a sweating,' or slight fermentation. The woody fibres in coarse hay, are thus rendered more palatable and nutritious, while its condition for becoming fodder, is considerably improved : but when any warmth becomes perceptible, if the weather will permit it, the hay should be spread out, and put into large cocks the moment it is in a dried state.

5231. In the moister pastoral districts, in the north-west parts of Scotland, hay-barns are necessary, the construction of which is as open as possible, for the purpose of drying, as well as preserving the hay. In some of these districts, a curious device has been fallen upon, of making the hay, when dried, into ropes of two fathoms in length, and then twisted twofold. Being thus compressed, less room is required in the barn, and in this shape, it is carried, with greater facility, to distant glens, for the use of cattle during stormy weather.

5232. In making fiorin hay (if hay it may be called, which is never dried) it is merely cut and put into small cocks, from which it is commonly taken as wanted. When it is to be put into larger cocks, it must be proportionally better dried. The stolones of this grass being remarkably vivacious, cannot easily be so dried as to admit of stacking in large bodies.

5233. The salting of hay, at the time of stacking, has been practised in Derbyshire and in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The salt, particularly when applied to the crop of rouen, or when the first crop has received much rain, checks the fermentation, and prevents moulding. If straw be mixed with the hay, the heating of the stack is still further prevented, by the straw imbibing 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 also thrive as well upon it. The quantity recommended is, a peck of ground rock salt to a ton of hay. By this application, hay that had been flooded, was preferred by cattle to the best hay that had not been salted.

5234. To make hay-ten. Boil at the rate of a handful of hay to three gallons of water, or if the water be poured boiling hot on the hay, it will answer nearly as well. Give it to the cattle and horses to drink when cold; or if the cattle and horses are anyways ill, and under cover, give it them blood warm. This drink is so extremely nutritive, that it nourishes the cattle astonishingly, replenishes the udders of the cow with a prodigious quantity of milk, makes the horse stale plentifully, and keeps him healthy and strong; and by this method one truss or hundred of hay will go as far as eight or ten otherwise would do. The cattle and horses do not seem to like it at first; but if they are kept till they are very thirsty, they will drink freely of it ever afterwards. The hay after being used as before-mentioned and dried, may be used as litter for horses and cattle; it will make very good manure, and save straw, which is a considerable advantage, especially where there is a scarcity of that article. (Davis's Rep. of Wilts.)

5235. The after-grass on all meadows is generally fed off; on firm lands, and in the dry season, by either sheep or heavy cattle; but in the winter only by sheep, unless the soil is so dry as not to be injured by the feet of cows or horses. The feet of the latter are

much less injurious than those of the former; but their bite being closer is more apt to tear up the plants, than the bite of the horned tribe. In Middlesex cattle are generally removed from meadow-lands in November; horses in the month following, and sheep allowed to remain till February. In Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and on many rivermeadows, every description of stock is allowed to remain till April, and sheep to May. In some districts, the whole of the after-growth is preserved from every species of stock till the following May, when it is fed off for sheep: but this greatly retards the hay crop for that year. It is evident that a good deal must depend on the farmer's other resources for keep to his stock.

5236. The after-grass, where manure is very abundant, is sometimes made into hay or rouen, a soft and not very nutritive food, given to cows or sheep; but this is reckoned a bad practice, even in the neighborhood of London, where manure may be had in abundance. It is also the usage of some to leave the after-grass on the ground without being eaten till spring, when it is said to be preferable, for ewes and lambs, to turnips, cabbages, or any other species whatever of what is termed spring-feed. This mode of management, which is strongly recommended by Young, and in some cases by Marshal also, is unknown in the north, where, though it is, in many instances, found beneficial, with a view to an early spring growth, not to eat the pasture too close before winter, it would be attended with a much greater loss of herbage, than any advantage in spring could compensate, to leave the after-growth of mown grounds untouched till that season.

5237. A system of alternate mowing and feeding is practised on some hay lands, partly to save labor and manure, and partly to subdue mosses and coarse grasses. On some soils even rich grass lands, when annually mown, become subject to weeds; for it tends to encourage moss, and gives advantage to the stronger rooted grasses, which gradually change, and deteriorate the nature and quality of the herbage. The bottom becomes thin, the white clover disappears, and coarser plants occupy the ground. When this takes place, the pasture should be fed, instead of being mown, for the space of two or three years, until the weeds have been subdued, and the finer grasses re-appear.

5238. By adopting the plan of mowing and feeding alternately, a farmer, it is said, may go on longer without the application of manure, but his fields, in the end, will be ruined by it. It is contended, that to maintain a proper quantity of stock, the land must be accustomed to keep it, particularly in the case of sheep; that where land has been used to the scythe, if manured for pastures, it will often produce more grass, but that grass will not (cæteris paribus) support so much stock, nor fatten them nearly so well; and that old pasture will not produce so much hay as land that has been constantly mowed; for each will grow best as they have been accustomed to grow, and will not readily alter their former habits. On the other hand, it is asserted, that many experienced farmers prefer the system of feeding and mowing alternately, as they find, that under that system, the quality and quantity of the hay has been improved; and the pasturage, in the alternate year, has been equally sweet and productive.

SECT. II. Of permanent Pastures.

5239. Permanent pastures may be divided into two kinds: rich or feeding lands; and hilly or rearing pastures. Under the former, we may comprehend all old rich pastures that are capable of fattening cattle; and under the second, such as are adapted to rearing them only, or are more advantageously depastured with sheep.

SUBSECT. 1. Of rich or feeding Pastures.

5240. Feeding pastures may include such as are equally fit for bay lands, or for being converted to arable husbandry; their characteristic being, that they are used for feeding stock, and keeping working animals and milk-cows in good condition. We have mentioned in a former chapter, that pasturage for one, two, or more years, is frequently interposed in the course of cropping arable land, to prevent that exhaustion of the soil which is commonly the consequence of incessant tillage crops. The same culture and management that is recommended here for rich grass lands, is equally applicable to them; there being no difference, excepting that the latter are generally considered less suitable for fatting heavy stock, such as large oxen, than rich old turf.

5241. The culture and management of feeding pastures, whether of a few years or perpetual duration, may be considered in regard to those necessary operations that have been already noticed, under the former section, -- such as the extirpation of weeds and noxious shrubs, clearing away ant and mole-hills, the application of manure, the time of stocking, the number of the animals, and whether all should be of one or of different species, the extent of the enclosures, and the propriety of eating the herbage close, or leaving it always in a rather abundant state; all these are questions which it is scarcely possible to decide in a satisfactory manner, by the application of general rules. They can only be resolved, with any pretensions to utility, by a reference to the particular circumstances of each case; for the practice of one district, in regard to these and other points, will be

found quite inapplicable to others where the soil and climate, and the purposes to which the pastures are applied, are materially different.

5242. The weeding of pastures should be regularly attended to. Weeds in pastures injure the farmer by the ground they occupy, the seeds they disperse, and sometimes, by influencing the quality of milk, or the health of the cattle. Small creeping weeds cannot be removed on the large scale of a farm; but large perennial plants, such as the dock, fern, nettle; and biennials, such as the thistle, ragweed, together with rushes and coarse tufts, or tussocks of tall oat-grass, should never be permitted to shoot up into flower. The dock ought to be taken out by the root with the dock-weeder, and the others cut over with spadlets or spuds. Nettles may be mown over, as may some other weeds, and some descriptions of rushes and fern is most effectually killed by bruising or twisting asunder the stem, when the frond or herb is nearly fully expanded. Smaller weeds may be mown, and this operation should never be deferred later than the appearance of the flowers. Where the sloe-thorn forms part of the enclosure-hedges, or the English elm, hoary poplar, and some other trees, grow in or around the field, they are apt to send up suckers; these should be pulled up, otherwise they will soon become a serious nuisance, In some parts of England, especially in the central districts, the hedge wastes, from the spread of the sloe-thorn and creeping rose (Rosa arvensis), are sometimes six or ten yards in width.

5243. To prevent the growth of mosses is one of the greatest difficulties in the management of old pasture lands; by these the finer species of grasses are apt to be overwhelmed, and the coarse sorts only remain. Drainage, and the use of rich composts, are in this case necessary. Harrowing and cross harrowing with a common harrow, or with what are called grass harrows (fig. 586.), which go from one to two inches deep, with a sprink

586

ling of grass-seeds afterwards, and some lime or well prepared compost, are the most likely means of destroying the moss, and improving the pasture. Feeding sheep with oil cake, and allowing them to pasture on the land, has also been found effectual for the destruction of moss, and bringing up abundance of grass. But the radical remedy is to plough up such grass lands upon the first appearance of moss, or before it has made any considerable progress, and sow them with corn.

5244. The removal of ant and mole-hills should be attended to during the whole summer. The manner of destroying ants has already been described; mole-hills spread on grass lands may be considered as of service rather than otherwise. These operations, together with weeding, and spreading the manure dropped by the larger stock, should go on together at intervals during the whole summer.

5245. The application of manures to grazing lands, which not being used as hay grounds afford no means of supply, may certainly be considered a preposterous practice, and one that must be ruinous to the other parts of a farm; yet in The Code of Agriculture it is stated, that "to keep grass in good condition, a dressing of from thirty to forty cubic yards or cart-loads of compost, is required every four years. The application of unmixed putrescent manure will thus be rendered unnecessary, which ought at least to be avoided, in meadows appropriated for the feeding of dairy cows, from its affecting the quality of the milk." (p. 476.) Grass lands kept at an expense of this kind will seldom, it is believed, be found to remunerate a farmer sufficiently. The same thing is recommended (probably from inadvertence or mere following the tract of preceding writers), in Dickson's Practical Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 953. But, excepting the dung dropped by the pasturing animals, which should always be regularly spread from time to time, it may be laid down as a rule of pretty extensive application, that if grass lands do not preserve their fertility under pasturage, it would be much better to bring them under tillage for a time, than to enrich them at the expense of land carrying crops of corn. (Sup. &c. art. Agr.) 5246. Teathing or stacking on the field, or carrying to be consumed there during winter, the provender that ought to have furnished disposable manure for the use of the farm at large, is another practice not less objectionable. It is to no purpose that such a wasteful practice is defended, on dry light soils which are alleged to be thus benefited by the treading of the cattle. (Marshal's Rural Economy of Yorkshire, vol.ái.