1

فر

(I chiefly mean rye-grafs and clover) I fhall here fubjoin an account of a very fimple mode of practice in this refpect, that I have followed for many years with the greatest fuccefs."

Inftead of allowing the hay to lie, as ufual in moft places, for fome days in the fwathe after it is cut, and afterwards alternately putting it up into cocks and spreading it out, and tedding it in the fun, which tends greatly to bleach the hay,-exhales its natural juices, and fubjects it very much to the danger of getting rain, and thus runs a great risk of being made good for little, I make it a general rule, if poffible, never to cut hay but when the grafs is quite dry; and then make the gatherers follow clofe upon the cutters,-putting it up immediately into small cocks about three feet high each, when new put up, and of as fmall a diameter as they can be made to stand with always giving each of them a flight kind of thatching, by drawing a few handfuls of the hay from the bottom of the cock all around, and laying it lightly upon the top with one of the ends hanging downward. This is done with the utmost ease and expedi tion; and when it is once in that ftate, I confider my hay as in a great measure out of danger: for unless a violent wind fhould arife immediately after the cocks are put up, fo as to overturn them, nothing else can hurt the hay; as I have often experienced, that no rain, however violent, ever penetrates into thefe cocks but a very little way. And, if they are dry put up, they never fit together fo clofely as to heat; although they acquire, in a day or two, fuch a degree of firmness, as to be in no danger of being overturned by wind after that time, unlefs it blows a hurricane.

In thefe cocks, I allow the hay to remain, until upon infpection, I judge, that it will keep in pretty large tramp cocks (which is ufually in one or two weeks, according as the weather is more or lefs favourable) when two men, each with a long pronged pitch-fork, lift up one of these fmall cocks between them with the greatest ease, and carry them one after another to the place where the tramp-cock is to be built and in this manner they proceed over the field till the whole is finished.

The advantages that attend this method of making hay, are, that it greatly abridges the labour; as it does not require above the one half of the work that is neceffary in the old method of turning and tedding it;—that it allows the hay to continue almost as green as when it is cut, and preferves its natural juices in the greatest perfection for, unless it be the little that is expofed to the fun and air upon the furface of the cocks, which is no more bleached than every straw of hay, faved in the ordinary way, the whole is dried in the most flow and equal manner that could be defired. And, laftly, that it is thus in a great measure fecured from almost the poffibility of being damaged by rain. This last circumstance deferves to be much more attended to by the farmer than it ufually is at prefent; as I have seen few who are fufficiently aware of the lofs that the quality of their hay futains by receiving a flight fhower after it is cut,

Or feveral cocks may be carried at once, by two men, upon a couple of long poles, in the manner of an hand-barrow,

and

and before it is gathered; the generality of farmers feeming to be very well fatisfied if they get in their hay without being abfolutely rotted; never paying the leaft attention to its having been feveral times thoroughly wetted while the hay was making. But, if thefe gentlemen will take the trouble at any time, to compare any parcel of hay that has been made perfectly dry, with another parcel from the fame field that has received a fhower while in the fwathe, or even a copious dew, they will foon be fenfible of a very manifeft difference between them; nor will their horfes or cattle ever commit a mistake in choofing between the two.

Let it be particularly remarked, that in this manner of making hay, great care must be taken that it be dry when firit put into the cocks; for, if it is in the leaft degree wet at that time, it will turn inflantly mouldy, and fit together fo as to become totally impervious to the air; and will never afterwards become dry till it is fpread out to the fun. For this reafon, if at any time during a courfe of good fettled weather, you fhould begin to cut in the morning before the dew is off the grafs, keep back the gatherers till the dew is evaporated; allowing that which was firft cut to lie till it is dry before it is cocked. In this cafe, you will almost always find that the uncut grafs will dry fooner than that which has been cut when wet; and, therefore, the gatherers may always begin to put up that which is fresh cut before the other; which will ufually require two or three hours to dry after the new cut hay may be cocked. And if, at any time, in cafe of neceflity you fhould be obliged to cut your hay before it is dry, the fame rule must be obferved, always to allow it to remain in the fwathe till it is quite dry: but, as there is always a great risk of being long in getting it up, and as it never, in this cafe, wins fo kindly as if it had been dry cut, the farmer ought to endeavour, if poffible, in all cafes, to cut his hay only when dry; even if it should coft him fome additional expence to the cutters, by keeping them employed at any other work, or even allowing them to remain idle, if the weather fhould be variable or rainy.

But if there is a great proportion of clover, and the weather fhould chance to be clofe and calm at the time, it may, on fome occafion, be neceffary to open up these cocks a little, to admit fome fresh air into them; in which cafe, after they have ftood a day or two, it may be of great ufe to turn thefe cocks and open them up a little, which ought to be done in the driest time of the day; the operator taking that part of each cock which was the top, and with it forming the bafe of a new one, fo that the part which was most expofed to the air becomes excluded from it, and that which was undermoft comes to be placed upon the top; fo as to make it all dry as equally as poffible.

If the hay has not been damp when it was first put up, the cock may be immediately finished out at once; but if it is at all wet, it will be of great ufe to turn over only a little of the top of the cock at firft, and leaving it in that state to dry a little, proceed to another,

By wining, is meant the operation by which hay is brought from the fucculent ftate of grass, to that of dry fodder.

and

and a third, and a fourth, &c. treating each in the fame way; going on in that manner till you find, that the infide of the first opened cock is fufficiently dried, when it will be proper to return to it, turning over a little more of it till you come to what is ftill damp, when you leave it and proceed to another, and fo on round the whole; always returning afresh till the cocks are entirely finished. This is the best way of faving your hay, if you have been under the neceffity of cutting it while damp; but it is always beft to guard against this inconvenience, if possible.

Although I am convinced that this method of making hay, is in all cafes the best that ever I have heard of, yet it is in a more efpecial manner worthy of being recommended to fuch as intend to fave the feed of rye-grafs; as, in that cafe, it is attended with many and great advantages. Every one who is in the leaft acquainted with this fubject, knows that this kind of grafs is fo very apt to fhed its feeds, that if the hay is allowed to lie in the fwathe till it is dry, a very great proportion of the feed will inevitably be loft by the neceffary handling when it is gathered, however carefully this may be done. To avoid this inconvenience, I have known feveral farmers who have thought it worth the expence of causing it to be gathered immediately after the cutters, and then being bound up into theaves and put up like it into fooks (fhocks) like corn, till it is thoroughly dried; for, by being in this ftate more eafily lifted than when it is quite loofe, lefs of it will be loft in carrying to be threshed.-But, not to mention the expence neceffarily attending this practice, it is likewife attended with another inconvenience which fubjects the farmer on many occafions to a greater lofs than he would fuftain by handling in the ordinary way: for, if it fhould chance to come a tract of rainy weather when it is in the ftook, the whole of the hay is at once drenched with water; and, if it continues wet for any length of time, the feed quickly lofes its colour and becomes musty, and even begins to grow before it can be threshed out; fo that both the hay and the feed will be totally or in a great measure loft. But, in the mode of practice here recommended, all the benefit that could be expected from this procedure is fully obtained, and the inconveniencies attending it entirely avoided for by putting it into the cocks as foon as it is cut, while the feed adheres more firmly to the hay than after it is dry, little is fhaken off by the gathering; and fill lefs is loft in carrying it to the place where it is to be threfhed (which ought to be in the field at the place where a tramp-cock is intended) in this way than when bound up into fheaves. And, as thefe cocks refift the rain perfectly well, the feed or hay are in no danger of being spoiled by rainy weather, if it fhould chance to come after they are once put up. And, moreover, as the hay is not thus fo much exposed to the weather, it is not near fo much spoiled in its colour, or dried in the wining as it is in the ufual method: on all which accounts, I deem it by far the most eligible method of faving this kind of grafs-feed. The truth of these remarks I had an opportunity of experiencing this very year 1772; the latter part of the hay-feafon having proved extremely rainy, infomuch that a very good and experienced hufbandman of my acquaintance, who took the former method of faving his grafs feeds, had them fo much spoiled by

the

the rain, and his hay at the fame time fo much damaged thereby that he was ashamed to offer either of them to fale; whereas mine, which were treated in the manner I now recommend, were both as fweet and wholesome as any good judge could wish them to be my hay in particular being as green and fucculent as any hay got in the ufual method is, even when it is not threshed.'

The fecond divifion of this book confifts of miscellaneous obfervations and difquifitions prepared for a work on a more extenfive fcale, which we are forry the Author found it inconve nient for him to execute.

ART. V. Ponda Angel-cynnan; or, a complete View of the Manners, Cuftoms, Arms, Habits, &c. of the Inhabitants of England, from the Arrival of the Saxons to the prefent Time; with a fhort Ac count of the Britons, during the Government of the Romans. By Jofeph Strutt, Author of the Regal and Ecclefiaftical Antiquities of England. 4to. Vol. III. 11. 11s. 6d. Boards. 1776.

WE

E were agreeably furprised with a third volume, now before us, of this very entertaining work. Mr. Strutt excufes himself in a preface, for obtruding upon the Public more than he promised; but his defence, in our opinion, is unneceffary, as the most effectual apology he could offer, is the work itself.

Inftruction and amufement accompany the antiquary through his laborious researches; and the wifdom and folly of our ancestors furnish him with both. We do not mean those commercial impoftors who deal in antiquities; who travel to the mouth of the Hellefpont only to give credit to a shapeless priapus, dug, as they report, from the ancient city of Lampjacus*: or who excavate the bowels of Latium or Parthenope † for the mutilated limb of a Sejanus, or the Spitting pot of Cleopatra; because the delufion of the prefent age produces an abundance of young men, who have tafte enough to be fond of the cheat, and fortune to afford any price for fuch learned, yet ridiculous forgeries. Mr. Strutt is upon a more fenfible, a more liberal, and more certain purfuit: he adorns his mufeum with the minds of our ancestors, collected from authentic records, and opens his gallery of portraits, that mankind may profit from the important ftudy of human nature.

It appears fomething more than a vulgar charge upon the clergy, to fay, "the devil is their best friend."-The Bishops thought him fo formerly. What opinion they entertain of him now, we will not prefume to enquire. In thofe fuperftitious days, when writs of right were determined by combat, the ec

Lampfacus, where the god Priapus was firft worshipped. + Parthenope, the ancient name given to Naples, from fuppofing it the refidence of the fyren Parthenope.

clefiaftics,

tlefiaftics, and others who were too bafhful to look juftice in the face, were permitted to fubftitute champions for that dangerous ceremony: the law-lords had little more to do than to adjust the punctilios, and fix the day for the combat. Before they encounter'd, it was the bufinefs of the chief juftice to measure the ftaves of the combatants, and to search if they had any rhyme, charm, or herb about them: if any was found, the court forthwith difmiffed the champions for that day; but if on the contrary nothing unlawful appeared, they proceeded to Tothil-fields, the place appointed for those judicial combats; and we find but one inftance where the devil was confulted on thofe perilous emergencies. In the 29th of Edward the Third, the champion of the Bishop of Salisbury (in a writ of right for the caftle of Thorborne), was found to have rolls of orizons and invocations wrapped about him.' Which plainly demonftrate that the Bishop had more confidence in the forcery of his old friend, than in any other interest whatever.

When Christianity was young in Britain, religion was active in the fervice of God and mankind; the husbandman was then attended to, particularly at that feafon when nature pours into the lap of industry her abundant treasures: the wife and good people of thofe early days manifefted their obligation to God, firft, by thanking him for his bounty, and then with unrepining labour making the most of his munificence.

The Catholic church, for more than 500 years after Chrift, permitted labour, and gave licence to many Chriftian people to work on the Lord's Day, at fuch hours as they were not commanded to be prefent at the public fervice, by the precept of the church; and in Gregory the Great's time, it was reputed Anti chriftian doctrine to make it a fin to work upon the Lord's Day: bat in after times, both in the Eaft and Weft, in France and Great Britain, as well in the days of the Saxons as Danes, rural works and labour, with other civil and fecular negociations, were prohibited and restrained upon the Lord's Day, and upon other festival days.'

The moralifts in Queen Elizabeth's reign, advifed her Majefty to the fame attention, for by proclamation, all parfons, vicars, and curates, were enjoined to teach and declare unto the people, that they might with fafe and quiet confciences (after the common prayer) in time of harvest, labour upon the holy and feftival days, and fave the things which God had fent them for if, by any groundlefs fcruples of confcience, they should abftain from working upon those days, that they fhould grievously offend and difpleafe God, if the grain were thereby lost or damaged.'

Such ideas are too liberal and too fublime for modern fanaticism, but furely they are worth adopting; and a proclamation of the fame tendency would reflect as much glory upon the religious character of George the Third, as it ever did upon that of his illuftrious predeceffor Elizabeth.

REV. Sept. 1776.

Ja