98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



AFTERNOON. 



FEEDING HAY. 

 By J, E. Shaw, Sec'y Penobscot County Farmers' Clnb. 



Mr. President^ Ladies and Gentlemen : We do not come before 

 j'ou at this time to present any new theory, or to present a subject 

 that you are not as well posted in as we are, but we propose to talk 

 on one that is familiar to every farmer present. If it is one that all 

 are familiar with, it is well, man}- times, to have it talked over in 

 farmers' meetings like this. 



We think it is the opinion of a large majority of the farmers of 

 Uie State of Maine, that mixed husbandry gives larger profits on the 

 labor required than can be realized \>y making a specialty of any 

 particular crop. When we look over the agriculture of the State, 

 past and present, we find the ha}' crop has always been made a 

 specialty ; and the farmers who have made that, and stock husbandry 

 in its various branches, the special feature of their farms, have 

 prospered. We find the hay crop raised b^' the farmers of Maine is 

 the most valuable of an}- crop produced in the State, and is of more 

 importance and of greater money value than all the other field crops 

 raised in the State put together. 



Taking the statistics, as published in the annual report of the 

 Department of Agriculture, for the year 1880, we find that 1,284:,- 

 451 acres in grass produced l,297,2i)G tons of hay, worth $16,436,- 

 70U, while all the other field crops were worth only $5,535,604, viz : 

 Corn, $853,175; wheat, $780,870; rye, $37,807; oats, $966,156 ; 

 barley, $188,635 ; buckwheat, $240,000, and the potato crop $2,- 

 474,011, showing that the hay crop exceeds all other field crops in 

 value some $10,000,000; and that the ha}' crop of the j-ear 1880 

 was worth about three times as much as all the other field crops 

 produced in the State that year. 



Thus the hay crop occupies a more important place than all the 

 other croi)s produced in the State, and the prosperity- of the farmer 

 depends largel}' on this crop. If a good ha}' crop is housed in good 

 condition, the farmer must be regarded as prosperous, though his 

 other crops may not be very productive ; and if the hay crop proves 

 to be a short one, we all feel it severely, though all other crops may 

 be very good. The soil and climate of Maine is naturally adapted 



