HAUTBOY. A musical instrument provided with keys like a flute, but blown by a reed at one end, and spreading out conically towards the other end.
HAY. Grass dried in the sunshine. The risk of this operation being suc cessfully completed, owing to unfavourable changes in the weather, is well known ; and the loss to the farmer in consequence of long continued rains and floods, after the grass is cut, is sometimes very severe. It has occurred to us that a remedy for so serious an evil might be found, in providing some simple temporary erections in the hay field, the cost of which would be far less than the value of the crop saved. Four posts, or hop poles, might be fixed in the ground, so as to form a quadrangle, with one in the middle, of greater height, as a central support, and to form the apex of a conical top or roof. At about a foot from the ground, some very coarse netting might be stretched horizontally from pole to pole, and thereto tied ; a quantity of the green hay might be thrown lightly upon this. Then, above this layer, a second floor of net work might be laid, with a sufficient space underneath for the free passage of the air, and upon it a second stratum of the wet hay maybe thrown; proceeding in this manner, tier above tier, as high as may be convenient ; which, by the assistance of a waggon as a stage, might easily be raised to twelve feet, and be covered either by a tarpaulin, or a conical top of hay. In erections of this kind, the hay would thoroughly dry, and the materials of which they are formed would last many years, might easily be stowed away, and be useful for other pur poses. The coarse netting in which woollen rags are packed, made of the tarred
strands of old cables, would be very cheap, strong, and durable. The Tyrolese have a method of preserving their hay crops which seems to deserve imitation in this country, as it may be perhaps more generally and easily practised. It is thus described by Mr. Brockedon, in a letter to the Society of Arts, &c. " I have observed, in the course of my journeys in the Alpine districts, that the hay is preserved in the meadows and on slopes, in situations where the cocks are exposed to the action of torrents, by being cocked upon stakes having two or three transverse pieces of wood fixed in them. The stake is light, about five or six inches in circumference, and about four or five feet long. These are kept by the farmers in large quantities, and stowed away compactly during winter, under the overhanging roofs of their dwellings. When used, they are driven upright into the ground at convenient distances, and the grass when cut is thrown upon them : it is supported upon the cross pieces or arms of the hay-stake, on which a large cock may be formed ; the lower part is free from the ground, while the outside, raked smooth, carries off the rain ; in this manner it is often left for weeks, if necessary ; the air freely entering and circulating, dries the hay, and frequently it is never spread, except during part of the favourable day in which it is housed.