22 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



their teams to care for, and, during hay harvest, one of these is back 

 in the field shortly after 5.30 and both wagons are loaded and drawn 

 in before 6.15 o'clock. The lighter team is hitched to the two-horse 

 rake at 6 o'clock and rakes until 7.30. The men who milk, after get- 

 ting their supper go to the field for a short time to bunch up hay or 

 load the two wagons. This makes a long day for the men, but this 

 extra labor is required for only a short time in the busy part of the 

 haying season; at other seasons the normal day's work ends at 6 

 o'clock. 



Two daj^s in the week the butter and eggs must be delivered to the 

 station, so instead of both teams going into the field on these days one 

 man with the lighter team starts about 7.30 o'clock a. m. for town, 

 returning before noon. On the da}^ that the writer watched operations 

 closely the other team began drawing hay shortly after 8 o'clock and 

 had in two loads by 10.30. Of twelve loads brought in during the 

 writer's visit, two were weighed. One had 2,1:00 pounds of ha}^ on it, 

 the other 2,900. It is reasonably certain that the average was at least 

 2,500 pounds and all were taken off an area of not more than 5 acres, 

 most of which had not been plowed for fifteen years. This shows a 

 yield of approximately 3 tons to the acre and was made up wholly of 

 fine grasses with clover mixed m, a most excellent quahty of dairy feed. 

 The teams which do this work are of good size. One pair of mares 

 weighs 2,700 pounds, the other pair, horses, 2,860 pounds. The single 

 rake was drawn during the afternoon by the driving horse, consider- 

 ably lighter in weight. 



As soon after haying as there is sufficient aftermath to furnish feed 

 the cows are turned into the meadows, for the permanent pasture is 

 then getting dry. Any newly seeded piece, however, is previously 

 given a light coat of manure, which prevents the cows from grazing it 

 down, and any other piece which would be hurt by grazing is treated 

 likewise. The cornfield is shut off with a temporar}' wire fence. Some 

 manure is spread occasionally even on the permanent pasture. 



FEED FOR THE COWS AND CALVES. 



As soon as the pasture gets dry and insufficient in the summer, and 

 before the mowing land can be used, a suitable quantity of hay is fed 

 to the cows ever}^ day, and later on the corn is fed out green. The 

 roughage for winter feed is entirely of this mixed hay , which contains 

 a large proportion of clover. The cows get, when m full milk, 8 

 pounds of grain a day, in two feeds. The grain is mixed, consisting 

 of 1 part cotton seed meal, 2 parts ground corn, 2 parts ground oats, 

 and 1 parts wheat bran. Skim milk is fed to the calves until they 

 are more than a year old, and the surplus at all times is given to the 

 milch cows. 



102— u 



