TRANSACTIONS OF STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. Ill 



will find it decidedly to his advantage to cut before stalks begin to 

 harden. And in making hay for sale it will be just as much advantage 

 to his customers, and will be better all around, if they can be induced 

 to pay a little more for such hay to make up for the loss in weight in 

 cutting before it is fully grown. 



Suggestions. — I would never cut at one time more than can be raked 

 and put in cocks in the forenoon of the next day, if it is in the hot and 

 dry summer months, or in the forenoon of the first day after it is suffi- 

 ciently cured. However, the very early or very late cuttings, when the 

 only difficulty is to get it dry enough to keep, may be handled in the 

 afternoon without breaking the leaves and losing them. But through 

 much of the season alfalfa hay should never be touched in the afternoon, 

 or after the leaves begin to break. 



One should never cut and put in the cock forty or fifty acres, as I 

 have often seen done, before beginning to haul it in. Hay thus treated 

 is scarcely worth more than half price, to say nothing of the delay of one 

 week, or perhaps even two weeks, in irrigation which this method requires. 

 One cannot afford this loss. When I have sixty or seventy acres to 

 handle, I generally cut about five acres in the morning and put in the 

 cock the same amount cut before, and come as near as I can to hauling 

 the hay from five acres each day. But I generally find it necessary to 

 stop cutting a day or two each week to catch up with the hauling. 

 When the weather is very dry and hot we think it pays to go to the 

 field as soon as it is light, and lay off for the remainder of the day 

 when the hay becomes too dry. 



We find it a great convenience and economy of time and labor to have 

 large and convenient racks on our hay wagons. We use flat racks, 

 eight by sixteen feet. On one of these we can, without high pitching, 

 conveniently put on a load of two tons, and without any danger of its 

 slipping off on sloping ground. A two-ton load on such a rack is about 

 twelve feet wide and eighteen feet long, and do higher than a ton load 

 on the kind of racks I often see used. And the average team can haul 

 two tons on our hard roads easily, and it saves much time when one is 

 hauling three or four miles. 



